


What Home Looks Like

by AbigailKinney4life



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Supernatural
Genre: Angst, Author fantasy really, Crossover Pairings, Friendship/Love, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Suicide, M/M, Romance, Slow Burn, odd ship
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-10-25
Updated: 2017-08-01
Packaged: 2018-02-22 14:41:15
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 52,879
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2511383
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AbigailKinney4life/pseuds/AbigailKinney4life
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Loki has always been an outsider in Asgard, Dean Winchester has always felt alone on Earth. When the two worlds collide, Loki and Dean begin to realise they're in control of their lives, and no matter what threatens to pull them apart, their choices will always bring them home. Marvel/Supernatural crossover.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Fire and Ice

**Author's Note:**

> Warnings: Suicidal themes, bullying, abandonment issues.
> 
> A/N: So, just for the record, I adore Destiel and Thorki, but I couldn't help thinking about how great Loki and Dean would be as a pairing so this is what my mind came up with, I hope you enjoy it x

Disclaimer: I do not own Marvel, Supernatural or any form of Norse mythology or anything else I reference throughout this work, they all belong to their respective owners.

_"Loki, what have you done?"_

Loki glanced around the banquet hall, Thor was across the table laughing with Sif and Fandral and he looked down at his own plate; empty. Not because he had finished eating but because he had never started. He couldn't possibly eat, how could he possibly eat? Seeing Thor sat across the room, laughing and joking as if nothing was wrong.

_"Loki, Loki...No!"_

Loki stood with a start, surprising the few Asgardians sat beside him.

"Brother...?" Asked Thor, his concern masked by his elation at the evenings celebrations.

"Don't feel you need to make a scene at every event." Fandral said lazily, popping a grape into his mouth. Loki would have loved to walk over to him and shut up his smug little mouth for once but if he reacted every time someone make a quip at him then he would be surrounded by bodies.

"I was merely leaving, Brother." Loki informed him, "excuse me if I startled you, it must be the excitement." The latter part of his sentence was so monotone in expression that it was clear to Thor that something was wrong.

As Loki stole his way through the crowd, Thor caught his mother's eye, who had been slightly withdrawn all evening. Seeing the concern in her eyes, Thor realised what had irked his brother so.

"Curses." Thor mumbled quietly to himself.

"Thor," began Sif reproachfully, "don't let Loki's attitude anger you, he just wants attention."

Thor shook his head. "No, I have been insensitive." He let his head drop into his hands, suddenly overcome with a feeling of guilt he could not chase away.

"Thor, what is wrong?" Asked Sif, and Thor nearly confessed but his promise to Loki held him back.

"Nothing, my lady." Thor replied, taking her hand in his and kissing it softly. She looked entirely too pleased with this so he retracted his hand as politely as possible and excused himself. He sent a reassuring look to Frigga and she smiled sadly back.

…

Loki pushed the doors to his shower room open so roughly they threatened to break off the hinges. He stopped in front of the reflected glass, staring at his reflection for a long moment. He pressed his fingers through his dark hair, falling too long around his shoulders. Uncovering a hair tie from the side, he quickly tied his hair back out of his face and rested against the basin.

He sighed to himself, he would never understand why Asgardian's felt the need to celebrate every minor victory, so Thor had defeated some fire demons, so what? It was his job, after all. Loki never got congratulated on protecting the throne of Odin. But then no one ever really cared for Loki anyway.

To the point where they would feast and make merry on the anniversary of his...

_"Loki...LOKI! You, find mother! Loki, wake up...!"_

He closed his eyes momentarily, he wasn't so much haunted by the events as he was by the fact that all he could hear ringing through his mind was Thor's voice, calling him back from the darkness, and yet all he could see was Thor's face, laughing, eating, having totally forgotten.

"Loki."

Loki swiveled in shock, recognising that rumbling voice. Thor was stood awkwardly in the doorway, Mjolnir hanging uselessly by his side.

"What do you want?" Loki asked, trying to compose himself quickly so Thor would not notice he had startled him.

Thor walked into the wash room without invitation. "You wear your hair back." He observed.

Loki rolled his eyes. "Goodness, Thor. If you have come to chastise me for making a bad exit from the feast, then please, get it over with, I'm not in the mood."

"Of course you're not." Thor told him, he suddenly looked so sincere that Loki found it hard to be mad at him. "I'm sorry for forgetting."

Loki sighed and shook his head. "I don't blame you, I try and forget as well, some nights are more successful than others."

"This night." Thor observed.

"Thor, I don't really want to talk about this. Look, go back to the feast, enjoy your celebrations."

"Are you sure?" Asked Thor skeptically.

"Yes," Loki continued, "please, go."

Thor hesitated for a moment before nodding to Loki and leaving. The minute he was gone, Loki began to shed his armour, wishing to crawl into bed and try and forget the evening. He turned back to the glass and and looked at his bare chest, in the harsh light of the wash room, the faint scar was visible.

A year ago today, Loki had succumbed to yet another serpent insult and decided, in a moment of madness, to bury his sceptre is his chest.

He remembered Thor finding him and screaming at him and nothing more. Now all he had was this faint scar, this bad memory and this date. Where people would rather celebrate a minor victory than offer him a few words.

Loki shook his head. _These people will never do anything for you._ He reminded himself. _Don't forget that._

…

All these years, Loki had felt different and never understood why and now he knew, it was so obvious he almost felt like an idiot for not realising it before. And he tried, he tried to come back from it and do something positive and surprise, surprise, he had got it wrong again.

The metal of his sceptre handle was cold and his knuckles were white as he gripped it tightly, Thor's eyes were so full of fear that Loki could barely look up to him.

"I could have done it, father!" Loki called up, the wind rushing around him and the exhilarating fear he felt at hanging, quite literally, from the rainbow bridge muffled his words.

"No, Loki." Was all Odin said, and Loki felt every piece of himself fall away, so naturally, he followed.

Thor screamed as Loki dropped through the air, his fingers slipping from the handle of the sceptre. He felt surprisingly calm as he was enveloped.

…

Dean Winchester downed his drink and wondered why everyone he ever loved was doomed to leave him. It had definitely not been his week.

He was finding it hard adjusting to life outside of purgatory, when he was exposed to that degree of violence, of fighting for survival every day, life was surprisingly simple.

It was when he had made it back that things had become complicated.

He ordered another drink and looked around the desolate bar he had wound up in, he shook his head to himself, trying to rid his mind of the memories he was drinking to forget.

But all he could see in his mind was Cas letting go of his hand as he fell through the portal, and Sam's face when he told him he didn't look for him.

He remembered how strangely alone he had felt after that, the two people in his life, Sam and Cas, had let him down and he didn't know what to do with that.

All he had had was Benny, this vampire that cared more for him than his family. Now Cas was off doing God knows what with heaven and Sam was hell bent on completely these demon trials. Benny had been the only one he could really talk to.

But then Sammy just had to go and get himself trapped in hell, and Benny had to sacrifice his goddamn life to save him, _for Dean._

_Benny,_ he thought to himself in a silent toast as he downed the new drink.

_Everyone is going to leave you._ His brain decided to chip in, dejectedly, Dean stood and walked out of the bar.

He wasn't drunk, it took more than a few shots to get him drunk nowadays, so he walked through the darkened car lot back to the Impala.

He stopped when he heard a muffled moan from beneath him. He looked down and saw a man lying in the car lot, just lying there.

"Hey, what are you doing?" Dean asked, but he got no response. He checked around himself and, feeling the comforting weight of the demon knife in his belt, started towards the figure.

The first thing Dean noticed about him was that he was dressed really weirdly, he was wearing a kind of leather trench coat thing that was green and gold in places, it looked like armour.

He had longish dark hair that fell like a halo around his pale face, features lax.

_Unconscious._

Dean looked around again, there was no one else here. Part of his mind was telling him to just leave this mystery man here, he couldn't trust anyone, after all.

He began to walk away but another quiet moan pulled him back and he sighed. He supposed he wasn't completely heartless yet.

Trying to be as gentle as possible, Dean pulled the unconscious mystery man to his feet and deposited him in the back seat, driving towards the bunker.

…

Loki woke with a start, he knew immediately something was wrong, he sensed it. He looked around the strange room, felt the strange bed beneath him. He jumped off of the bed quickly and searched for his sceptre, but of course he didn't have it with him.

He frowned, he'd left it...he'd fell...He suddenly remembered what had happened, he remembered falling.

Loki looked down at his hand, clenching his fingers together.

"I'm alive?" He asked quietly.

Loki stood back as the door suddenly opened and a man walked in. He was around 30 years old, he was tall with short, dark hair and slightly tanned skin sporting a plaid shirt and ripped jeans. Loki took in his odd appearance.

"Human?" He asked.

The man fixed him with a quizzical stare. "Look, I tested you. You're not a demon." He explained.

Loki's brow furrowed. "What? I'm not a demon? Of course I'm not."

The man said nothing.

"What happened?" Loki asked. "Where am I?"

"I found you unconscious in a parking lot," he explained, "and you're in Kansas."

Loki processed for a moment. Midgard. He had fallen to Midgard. How odd.

"Are you okay?" The man asked, sounding concerned. Loki looked up, pulled out of his thoughts.

"Err...yes, I'm fine. Thank you for...helping me."

The man looked down at the floor for a moment, unsure of what to say until Loki's grumbling stomach broke the silence.

Loki felt himself go red. "Oh, apologies. My...trip...fatigued me."

Dean fixed him with that same quizzical look as before, was this guy straight from the 20's or something? Fatigued?

"I'll fix you something." Dean told him, going to walk out of the room.

The strange man looked confused for a second until he seemingly understood what he meant. "Oh, no, don't worry..."

Dean waved him off. "No, don't worry. I'm starving, myself. There's a bathroom down the hall if you want to use it."

When he had left the room, Loki stood awkwardly. Why was this stranger offering him such kindness? Humans weren't like that, not in his experience.

He walked to the bathroom and caught sight of himself in the mirror and groaned. He looked gaunt in the face, even paler than usual, his eyes were a shade darker and his hair was mussed.

He searched around in his armour for a hair tie but could not produce one and concluded that the good Samaritan of Kansas would not have one considering how short his hair was. Loki raked his fingers through his raven hair to try and straighten it out slightly, he felt hot in his armour. Too hot.

He eased his trench coat off, limbs heavy, he struggled momentarily with the clasps that attached the garment to his tunic. He had always longed for less complicated clothing but he supposed it was better than being constantly swathed in metal like Thor.

He walked out of the bathroom to the wafting smell of meat and followed his nose to a sort of conference room with a large table in the middle. The Samaritan of Kansas was stood beside the table, placing two bottled drinks next to the plates, Loki cocked his head to the side. He supposed this was an aesthetically pleasing human. He had pulled his sleeves up and his exposed forearms were muscular, although not rock hard as Thor was. He looked up as Loki entered.

Dean raised his eyebrows. The mystery man had taken off his trench coat was was wearing a tunic that exposed his arms, the rest of him seemed as pale as his face, he was surprisingly lithe for someone wearing armour.

The pair stood for a moment, staring at each other.

"I'm Loki, by the way." He said.

_Of course. Dean thought to himself._

"I'm Dean." Dean replied, gesturing to the table. Loki walked forward and sat down beside him, surveying the odd food in front of him.

"What?" Asked Dean, seeing Loki staring. "Something wrong?"

"No," Loki told him, "sorry, I haven't been here for a while, the food is a little alien to me."

"Dude, you're really odd." Dean told him, shaking his head and grinning slightly.

Loki suddenly felt a lot more comfortable and watched as Dean picked up the food and brought it to his mouth, Loki followed him, picking up the bread, careful not to let the meat in the middle slide out, and took a bite.

"Wow." He said after a moment, "this is good."

Dean didn't answer but turned his head away slightly.

"What is it?"

Dean had to fight to stop himself laughing out loud, this guy was obviously disorientated and he didn't want to openly take the piss out of him. Besides, if anyone knew what it was like to find yourself in the middle of nowhere then it was Dean.

"It's called a burger." He explained, watching as Loki took another bite. He squinted.

"It's much better than some of the food on Asgard."

"What?" Asked Dean, "Asgard?"

Loki looked at him, his blue eyes were suddenly wide, like he was assessing the situation before him.

Dean realised that he may have picked up more than a confused eccentric.

After a moment, the intensity of Loki's expression fell and he chewed thoughtfully for a moment.

"It's where I'm from." He explained, "it's not on Earth, it's another realm."

Dean snapped his fingers suddenly and Loki was taken aback. "I knew it," Dean said, "I knew I recognised your name from somewhere. As in, Loki, God of mischief."

"Wait, you know about that?" Loki asked, brow furrowed in confusion.

Dean looked sheepish for a moment, he considered not telling this guy, this God, that he was a hunter but he supposed Loki was honest so he probably should be too.

"I'm a hunter," he told him, "I know all sorts of lore, including Norse."

Loki looked confused. "What's a hunter?" He asked.

Dean took another bite and chewed thoughtfully. "It's like a person that goes around and sorts out supernatural problems, dealing with ghosts and demons and stuff."

Loki nodded. "I see, that's why you thought I might be demon."

"I knew you were _something_ , the demon's have just been pretty active lately."

"Why?"

Dean opened his mouth to explain about the trials, confused for a moment why he was talking so freely to an Asgardian, before he shut it again.

Loki frowned slightly and Dean gestured redundantly around him. "It's nothing, it's not "need to know" or anything, I just don't really want to talk about it."

Loki looked down at his plate. "Yeah, I understand."

Dean believed that he did.

The pair finished their food, the air filled with pretty normal conversation despite the fact it was an Asgardian God and a Supernatural Hunter chatting over burgers. It sounded like a joke.

"Thank you for the hospitality," Loki said, feeling more revitalised than he had in days.

"No problem," Dean answered, "I never expected to spend the evening with an alien but hey, I've done worse."

Loki smiled slightly. "I'll take that as a compliment."

Dean smiled back, he couldn't help it, Loki was charming.

"Most human's would have left me in the road." Loki pointed out and Dean scoffed.

"Yeah, that's true. But, I'm not a heartless prick yet."

Loki cocked his head to one side, his dark hair falling over one shoulder. "I suppose it takes a lot of practice to make it to my level." He sounded glum all of a sudden.

Dean cleared his throat. "So, are you going back to Asgard?" He asked, he didn't know why he was asking.

Loki sighed suddenly, not at Dean, but at the ground. He brushed his hair off of his shoulder. "I suppose. It's not really my choice." He admitted.

"It's always your choice." Dean told him immediately, Loki looked up at him. What a strange human, he thought to himself. It was interesting finding someone who seemed so hard done by and yet so kind at the same time.

But that was not the only thing Loki liked about Dean, it had been the nicest anyone had treated him in a long time.

"Where were you headed, then?" He asked, "before the parking lot?"

"Oh." Said Loki, somewhat taken aback. He fidgeted for a second. "I wasn't really going anywhere," he said. "Some stuff happened and I didn't really want to be there anymore...I just dropped, really."

Dean was unsure of what to say, instead, he stuck his hand out dumbly. Loki stared at it.

"Err, nice to meet you." He continued, internally cursing himself.

After a moment, Loki extended his own hand and took Dean's into his own. Loki had surprisingly big hands, with pale, long fingers. Kind of like the rest of him.

His hand was cool to the touch, whereas Dean's was warm.

The pair stood there, transfixed by the feel of each other's skin, for a long moment until Dean finally pulled his hand away. Loki backed up, shaking his head, like he was unsure as to what had just happened to him.

"Um, I should go." He said quietly.

Dean nodded in response, trying to force a smile. "Yeah, stay safe, though." He added.

Loki glanced at him one last time before walking towards the bunker door and disappearing through the other side.

What the hell just happened? Loki looked down at his hand as he stepped into the cool, Midgardian air. He missed the warmth he had felt, so different to his own usual cool skin.

Because of this, the chill in the air didn't bother him. He looked around himself, wondering exactly where he would go.

Then, as if on cue, Loki heard the tell tale sounds of Thor's thunder crackling across the darkened sky.

He sighed to himself, he guessed he was going 'home'.

…

Dean didn't like being confused, he really didn't like it. And just then, friggin' holding Loki's hand; confused was the only word he could use.

It certainly hadn't been the weirdest way he'd spent an evening, but it wasn't the most normal. It had been the most pleasant, however. He hadn't felt that at ease with someone, with Sam, for a long time.

At that moment, it occurred to Dean that he would probably never see Loki again. He had no idea where he was going, what did he say about dropping...?

Immediately, Loki's words and the way he had fidgeted when he said them all clicked into place.

He'd meant to drop. He'd meant to die.

Dean bolted across the conference room and flung the door to the bunker open, chasing into the night.

As he emerged outside, he looked around frantically, face illuminated by a single car's headlight. He felt a crushing weight inside himself.

Loki was already gone.

"Dean?" Asked Sam, climbing out of the car, looking as run down as he always did nowadays. "What are you doing out here?"

Dean looked at his little brother, his forehead scrunched up in confusion.

He shook his head. "Nothing."


	2. Calm and Chaos

Despite all of it's flaws, there was something about Midgard that Odin loved. He loved the simplicity of everything, the way human lives ticked on throughout even the harshest of tragedies, it was ambiguous.

When informed he was requested to come to Earth, Odin took the task easily, all he wished was that he could persuade Frigga to join him. But she remained in her bedchamber, locked up alone until Thor returned with Loki.

If Thor returned with Loki.

Odin scattered the thought from his mind as he took a seat at a large glass table, a guard on either side, looking out across the city of New York. As he observed the tall buildings and glittering glass he concluded that Earth and Asgard weren't really all that different.

"I'm glad you could make it." Came a rich voice from across the room. Odin looked over to see a dark skinned man standing with his hands clasped behind his back. He was very distinct, he had a black eye patch over one eye, much like Odin himself, and he stood in a leather trench coat that reminded Odin all too much of Loki. But his look of serenity could match even Heimdall.

"Director Fury." Odin greeted solemnly, "I regret the circumstances that brought us to this meeting."

"So do I." Fury agreed, standing opposite Odin across the table. "That robot of yours leveled a small town."

Odin raised his chin. "The perpetrator has been...stopped." He thought of Frigga again, the anguish on her face, he didn't know how Loki could do this to her. Again.

"Whilst it was one of yours that caused this mess, it was also one of yours that helped save it." Fury conceded.

Odin nodded once. "Yes."

"I'm proposing an agreement." Fury told Odin, who raised an eyebrow at him. "The world is a lot bigger than I thought it was, and if anything like this happens again, Shield can't deal with it alone. We don't understand all of these realms."

Odin lent back in his seat. "You are proposing an alliance," he told him, "between Asgard and Earth."

"Purely for tactical use," Fury explained, "I want to be safe in the knowledge that if anything happens that Shield cannot deal with alone, I can count on a superior force to lend a hand."

"What do your authorities think about this?" He asked.

"All in favour." Fury explained. "They're just as scared as I am."

Odin smiled. "I like you, Director. You are not afraid to admit when you need help, it shows a real soldier. You may have your alliance."

"Thank you." He said, bowing his head ever so slight. Odin also appreciated the respect.

Upon arrival back to Asgard, Heimdall stopped him. "My King," he rumbled, "your sons have returned."

"Sons?" Asked Odin, "Loki has been found?"

Heimdall nodded once.

"Thank you, Heimdall." Said Odin, leaving the Bifrost.

Loki had been found, he was glad, Frigga would be overjoyed.

However, he couldn't help but worry about what would happen to all of them with Loki's return.

SOME MONTHS LATER

"The angels!" Dean exclaimed, staring disbelievingly at the sky. "They're falling!"

Sam had collapsed against him from exhaustion, Dean didn't know what the hell he was supposed to do, or what the hell was going on.

What were the angels doing? Had they done it?

"Oh God," he moaned uselessly, feeling around for Sam. He hauled Sam's weight against him and attempted to stand, depositing him awkwardly into the Impala.

"Shit, shit, shit." Dean mumbled, catching sight of the lusciousness shooting stars crashing into the ground.

He closed his eyes for a split second, gathering himself, before getting into the drivers seat of the car and turning the ignition, doing the only thing he could do, driving his baby brother to the hospital.

…

Dean felt like crap, he generally felt like crap about something but right now...he didn't think he'd ever regretted a decision more. He'd tricked Sam, tricked him into letting an angel take over his body. He knew if Sam ever found out what he did, he would never forgive him.

The same angel looked at him across the hospital room with Sam's eyes, it was Sammy but at the same time he looked completely different.

"It was Metatron's work." Ezekiel, Sam, told him.

"Why?" Asked Dean, "what does he want?"

"I do not know," he answered, "but it will cause chaos for the angels."

"Yeah, I know." Said Dean, rubbing his face with his hands. "One problem at a time, yeah? How's Sam?"

Ezekiel looked like he was eternally assessing for a moment before he spoke. "Your brother is very sick, I am surprised he held on this long without me."

Dean attempted a humourless smile. "He's a tough one, Sammy."

"What about the angels?" Ezekiel asked, "what do you think, Dean?"

Dean raised his hands and shrugged.

…

"What should we do, Director?" Agent Coulson asked, placing a slim file down on Fury's desk, the file contained everything they knew about the falling angels, the reason it was so slim was because Shield had no idea what to do.

Fury was stood looking out of the window, deep in thought. "There are groups of people," Fury began, "scattered around, they call themselves 'hunters,' they specialise in dealing with supernatural phenomenons."

Coulson looked confused. "Then why don't we have a department for them?"

"They prefer to work alone, it is not easy work. We try to keep our distance. But when something of this," he walked to his desk and tapped the file lightly, "magnitude comes along, we pull in the odd one."

Coulson nodded. "Okay, what should I do?"

"Find out what you can," Fury told him, "find out the name of the hunter people hold in highest regard and then find them."

…

Dean Winchester.

Coulson had spoken to many people, people in the know, people he suspected were hunters themselves, and when he asked who the best one was, the same name always turned up.

Dean Winchester.

Coulson knew he had to find him, except the son of a bitch was hard to track down. Coulson had never taken this long to find someone before. But at least it proved that he was good at what he did. That Coulson wasn't just hearing conjecture and hearsay.

"What do you want?" Came an American accent from across the room. Coulson stood, brushing the dust from his suit trousers. He didn't understand why everyone had to meet in abandoned warehouses, what was wrong with a nice coffee shop?

"Mr Winchester, you're a hard man to track down. The hunter I spoke to wouldn't reveal your location to me, instead setting up this meeting."

"Garth's a decent hunter." Was the reply.

Coulson walked closer to the man, he was tall and broad, wearing a brown leather jacket and tight jeans, holding a silver colt in one hand.

Coulson could feel the reassuring weight of his gun against his side, he wasn't scared.

"What do you want?" Dean asked, expression guarded.

"I represent an agency," Coulson explained. "An agency called Shield, we deal with security, things in this world that people either can't accept or wont believe, a lot like what you do."

Dean squinted at him. "You can't just recruit hunters for some jumped up government agency." Dean commented. "We don't work that way."

"I know," Coulson said. "Listen, Mr. Winchester, we know about the angels, we need someone to come and show us what is happening."

Coulson recognised the look in Dean's eyes, it was heavily guarded, but it was relief. Relief that there was someone else out there that could help with the crisis, Coulson knew that Dean would come with him.

…

"Sam," began Dean around the table that evening, Sam placed his beer bottle down and looked at his brother expectantly. "Have you ever heard of a place called Shield?"

Sam shook his head. "Why? What is it?"

"It's like a secret government agency or some bologne," Dean explained and Sam frowned slightly. "One of their guys got close to us, I met him outside of Kansas."

Sam's frown deepened. "What? Someone tracked us down?"

Dean shook his head. "No, they found Garth, but it sounded really important so I went to meet the guy."

"And?" Sam prompted.

"Sammy, they know about the angels." Dean admitted.

"Are they hunters?" Asked Sam, looking perplexed. "Like, government hunters?"

Dean shook his head again. "No, the guy was kinda vague, but he said they deal with shit people don't usually believe, and every time something they don't understand comes up, they call in a hunter. And they want us."

"They want our help with the angels? Did you tell him we knew dick all about it?" Sam chuckled.

Dean couldn't help but smile in response but his smile quickly dropped. "I told him we'd go and see what they know."

"What?" Sam exclaimed.

Dean opened his mouth to reply but that all too familiar blue sounded in Sam's eyes and suddenly it was not his brother he was speaking to.

"Dammit, Zeke. I was trying to talk to Sam." Dean expressed angrily.

"What are you doing, Dean?" Zeke asked, in that monotone voice of his, "these people aren't hunters, we cannot trust them."

Dean lent forward. "Listen, these are the only other people we've met that actually know something about what is going on here. I'm too busy looking after Sam, watching out for you and I don't know what to do!" He was whispering, he didn't know why though because Sam could not hear him, he lent back. "Just, give Sam back a minute, we need to discuss this."

"I do not approve," was all Zeke said before the blue flashed again.

…

Dean always felt a little guilty being in official buildings. It was mainly because he was generally impersonating someone and could be caught out any second, but it was also because he'd probably been caught and was in some serious shit.

Dean glanced along to Sammy, who was sat down staring at his phone. Dean shook his head slightly, Sam had to be on the mend if his Plants verses Zombies addiction was coming back.

The same guy who had spoken to Dean the first time came out to speak to them.

"Hello again, Mr. Winchester," he said, he passed to Sam and shook his head. "And other Mr. Winchester." He greeted.

Dean didn't like to trust anyone in a suit but Coulson seemed okay, it seemed he genuinely wanted their help. It made Dean feel bad that there was no help he could give him.

"Sam." Sam said in greeting, shaking Coulson's hand.

Zeke was under strict orders not to make a fly-in appearance through this. Dean just hoped he was good to his word, angels didn't exactly have a history of listening to humans.

"Director Fury will see you now."

Dean refrained from rolling his eyes. Big shot who thought he knew everything, that's what Director Fury was beginning to sound like.

But if he knew anything, he wouldn't have had to come to some backstreet hunters for help.

Sam and Dean followed Coulson into a large warehouse and Dean's mouth fell open. Inside were miles and miles of aircraft carriers, war ships, loaded missiles...everything you would find in a military base.

Okay.

A man was walking towards him, he was wearing a long black coat and a black eye patch, even from here, Dean could see the scars surrounding it. He didn't know how else to put it. Director Fury was cool.

"Gentlemen," he began in a deep voice, "I'm glad you could make it."

"Err," began Sam, obviously at a loss at what to say.

Fury gave them a half smile. "Follow me." He said and began to walk away.

Sam immediately followed, Dean could almost feel his geek radar going off. Dean looked around to see if Coulson was still there but he wasn't, Dean followed.

"I'll put it plainly," Fury began as they reached what looked like a large cannon mid-construction. "I asked for you because every piece of intelligence I have on hunters tells me you're the best."

Dean opened his mouth to argue but Fury silenced him. "I'm not going to lie, this angel situation has us stumped, so I'm calling in an expert."

Dean noticed the way he said 'expert' and not 'experts' and refrained from looking at Sam, he needed Sam to know he was just as important at this point.

"We don't really know all that much." Sam pointed out sheepishly, Fury didn't say anything.

"We know things," Dean pointed out, "but this is really big. We know the douchebag angel that set this all off and we need to get to him to figure out what to do next, but we can't. He's too powerful."

"Then you have all of Shield at your disposal." Fury informed them calmly.

Sam shook his head. "No, that's not going to cut it."

"Don't you get it," began Dean, "you're a smart guy. Metatron, the scribe who did all this, is a powerful angel. Even the normal ones are hard. Look how long it took you to track down two hunters, and you didn't even find us. How can you expect to track down an angel alone? I think we all need more help. Superior help, I just don't know what gets more superior than an agency with..." He gestured to the cannon. "...Stuff like this."

Fury was smiling slightly. "Oh, I do."

…

"Open up the link." Odin commanded, one of his guard waved his hand and the holographic image of Nick Fury appeared in front of the King.

"Director," began Odin, "what's the problem?"

Always straight to the point, Odin sat back in his throne.

"We have a problem here," he began, voice surprisingly crisp through the hologram. "Our heaven is different to your Valhalla, our heaven has been shut off and taken apart and it is quietly causing chaos on Earth."

"What do you need?" Asked Odin.

"Soldiers." Fury informed him. "Superior beings that will listen to the commander I have put in place."

"I will give you soldiers, superior beings." Odin conceded. "On Asgard, we have warriors, more specifically we have three warriors and a Lady, all of whom I trust to protect this realm, and yours."

"This is serious, Odin."

"Then I will send my sons."

Fury cocked his head. "Your sons? Gods?"

Odin nodded. "Yes, Thor and Loki. Both of whom are battle trained, one able to control thunder and lightening, and one proficient in magic. Is that superior enough for you, Director?"

Fury remained silent for a long moment, hoping having God's on Earth wouldn't cause more problems than they already had.

"Yes, thank you." He said before dissolving into nothing.

Odin's breath was shallow. Was it wise to send Loki to Earth after last time? Thor would be there to look after him, keep him in check. He supposed he could not eternally punish Loki for something that had been and gone.

He'd had his own hand in Loki's madness, anyway.

…

"I understand that you're preoccupied." Fury admitted, causing Dean to straighten himself, startled.

He looked around but Sam hadn't returned from his quest to find food, Dean was innocently inspecting some of Shield's weapons on display when Fury had startled him.

"What are you talking about?" Asked Dean, guarded.

"I'm a spy," Fury told him, "I know something's wrong with your brother, I can see it every time you look at him, you're worried."

Dean didn't say anything.

"But the pair of you are too directly involved to be preoccupied, you need to be in on this. I've put you in charge, Dean."

Dean sighed, hearing way too much of John Winchester's voice in Fury's than he would care to hear. "What do want me to do?" He asked, almost solemnly.

"This is for your ears only," Fury instructed. "I have links with Asgard, Asgard is..."

"Yeah, I know what Asgard is," said Dean, voice emotionless.

Fury expected him to expand but he didn't, he just continued to stare at him with that same guarded expression,

"Okay, well. I spoke to Odin, the king. He told me he will send some of his finest warriors, and his sons, to help us. I'm putting you in charge of them."

"What, in charge of Gods?"

"I wouldn't be doing it if I didn't think you could handle it."

Dean thought to himself for a moment. Having others around would keep the attention off of Sam, it might even give him a little more time to sort all of this out.

He stood up a little straighter, the minute Sam's safety was involved he was no longer involved in the decision making.

"I'll have to talk to Sam but okay, I'll do it."

…

Loki was sat alone reading a book when a guard came and informed him he was expected in the throne room. Loki put the book away and let his hair down, snapping the tie onto his wrist. He knew Odin never appreciated him wearing his hair up.

He was halfway to the hall when Thor began to walk beside him.

"Did father send for you as well?" He asked in that deep voice of his.

"Yes." Loki answered, wishing his own voice was a little bit more regal. But it wasn't, so there was little point in worrying about it. "I wonder what he wants."

Thor shrugged, he wasn't carrying Mjolnir. "Father is fickle."

Loki laughed. "That he is."

When they reached the throne room, Sif, Volstagg, Hogan and Fandral were all stood there, waiting.

Odin was sat atop his throne, Frigga sat beside him.

"Evening, Father." Thor greeted.

"Mother." Loki smiled, she smiled back at him despite herself.

"I've called you here," began Odin, not bothering with pleasantries. "All of you, because when the incident on Earth occurred-" Loki winced "-I set up communication with one of their ambassadors with a promise that if something disastrous ever happened there again, I would send my finest warriors to provide all the help they could. That day has come."

"You wish to send us to Midgard?" Thor asked, sounding confused.

Odin nodded. "I promised them Lady Sif, the warriors three and my two sons."

"Wait," began Loki immediately, "you want me to go?"

He could feel the eyes of the others boring into him. "Are you sure?" He asked skeptically, "I mean, the events in Mexico were my fault in the first place."

"Brother," began Thor immediately, turning to Loki. "You were confused, lost because of your discovered parentage, all is forgiven."

Thor was smiling comfortingly and it made Loki feel immediately more reassured. However, when he caught a raised eyebrow from Fandral, he wondered if things were really as forgiven as Thor seemed to think they were.


	3. Blue and Green

"I've read so much Lore about them, It's one of those things when you're actually shocked that they're real."

"Well, angel's were real and I didn't think they were." Dean pointed out, Sam nodded in agreement.

"So, do you think the Asgardian's are going to be able to help us?"

Dean shrugged. "I don't know, I don't know a lot about them. The angels might be a walk in the park for them, they might not."

"We should get to Shield headquarters." Sam decided, downing the remainder of his orange juice and picking up the keys for the motel room.

Dean stood. "I miss my room." He said glumly before following Sam out of the door,

…

Loki straightened up as he stepped out the Bifrost's range, Thor clapped him on the back.

"You don't use the Bifrost that much, it gets easier, don't worry." Loki sent a scowl his way but Thor only laughed at him. The rest of them laughed too, but Loki could hear the harshness in their voices.

His frown dropped immediately as he looked around himself. The last time he had been on Midgard it had been dark, now it was lighter Loki could truly see how far the planet had come.

There were large buildings that reached towards the sky, littered with windows and gleaming metal. It wasn't unlike Asgard, whereas in Asgard everything had a gold hue to it, here things seemed to be silver.

"Where are we?" Loki asked.

"I think that would be obvious." Sif mumbled snidely, Loki looked at her with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes, I'm aware we're on Earth," he said loudly, "I meant, where on Earth." He said that last bit of his sentence very slowly, causing Sif to look away.

He knew Thor disapproved, but he answered him anyway. "America, New York." He told him.

Loki nodded, wondering to himself the odds that everything always happened in New York.

…

This was too weird, Dean thought to himself as the Asgardian's filed into the glass conference room in Shield, they all looked too regal to be in New York. Dean suddenly felt a bit odd sitting there in his jeans, he unconsciously shuffled.

There were three men and only one woman, all wearing metal armour and carrying weapons of varying degrees, Thor walked in next, having to stoop to avoid the lintel.

Dean assumed it would be Thor, considering he was huge and blonde and carrying a hammer, he also had a red cape trailing behind him.

Dean had no problem feeling shorter, that was what happened when you were related to Sam, but next to Thor, Dean felt physically inadequate and it made him a little uncomfortable.

The final man to walk in wasn't looking at them, he was staring around the room, seemingly more interested in the architecture of building than the people inside it.

He was wearing a long leather trench coat over leather armour all littered with metal and green and gold, his long black hair was pulled over one shoulder.

Dean sat up a little straighter, shock paralysing him for a moment. "Loki?" He asked disbelievingly.

The God looked over at the sound of his name and saw the all too familiar human staring at him with a look of shock plastered across his face. It took Loki a moment to find his voice.

"Dean?" He asked, too quietly.

Dean stood slowly and the pair just stared at each other out of shock. Everyone else in the room was staring at them quizzically but they didn't even notice.

"You never told me you were Odin's son." Dean said, putting two and two together.

"It never came up." Loki admitted after a moment. He was more muscular now, Dean could see that despite the coat and the fact that he had no idea why he'd noticed, his hair was a little longer, too.

"You look different." Loki said a little dumbly, reflecting Dean's thoughts. And Dean did look a little different, his short hair was ever so slightly longer now and lighter, he also seemed less tanned than when they had met the first time. Loki realised he must have committed Dean to memory without noticing. He had saved him, after all.

Fury cleared his throat. "Well, this is all very touching, but if we could get back to the matter at hand."

The connection between Loki and Dean was broken and they suddenly became hyper aware of everyone in the room staring at them. Loki didn't want to look at Sif or any one else and see the scoffing looks on their faces so instead he elected to stare at the floor.

Dean remained on his feet and glanced backwards at Sammy, who was staring quizzically at him. Dean glared back.

"This is Sam and Dean Winchester," said Fury, "they will be in charge of this operation. These are the Lady Sif and the warriors Hogan, Volstagg and Fandral and Thor and Loki, who you obviously already know."

Loki refrained from rolling his eyes and kept his gaze firmly on the floor.

Dean could see the Asgardian's staring at him, all except Loki who was looking at the floor, they were all very intimidating. Although, all stood in a line like this, it suddenly became very obvious that Loki was not like the others, he was not even like his brother.

Dean became aware that they were expecting him to speak, Loki peaked out at him from behind his dark hair, noticing the silence. Dean found his voice.

"So, we have a little situation going on here." He cleared his throat a little, still feeling a bit intimidated. "Um, basically there is a angel, a scribe of God, who, for some reason, decided to kick all of the angels out of heaven. Now they're on Earth; confused and making a mess. And Metatron, the scribe, is God knows where, doing God knows what. Nothing to this scale has happened before, I mean, you know..." The apocalypse suddenly ran through his mind. "Nothing I immediately knew how to deal with, anyway."

Loki was looking at him openly now, an interested expression on his face. His pale blue eyes were squinted slightly, Dean forced himself not to concentrate on it.

"Why would we be useful?" Loki asked and Dean looked at him.

"Angels are powerful, some more so than others. We needed people that could handle it."

"We can handle it." Said Sif immediately, pulling her weapon out from behind her back. "What do you want us to do?"

Dean recoiled a little bit.

"I didn't think they were packing," Sam whispered sarcastically behind them and Dean forced himself not to laugh.

"Okay," Dean shrugged, feeling more confident. "Well, the biggest thing that needs to be done is the angels need to be contained, they're confused; it sucks. Maybe you guys," he gestured to Sif and the warriors three, "could find them, bring them here. Just, be gentle."

"Where shall we find them?" Fandral asked.

"We have coordinates for some of them," began Sam, "places they fell or would have gone to. But the problem with that is that some of them have gone south, obviously freaked out at having been too far from the mothership. There is an Angel, his name is Bartholomew, he and some other renegade angels have started killing humans, going after vessels, they need to be stopped." Sam looked at Thor. "Maybe we could go after them?"

Thor nodded. "Of course, you have my assistance."

Dean grinned to himself, Sam had always been a massive fangirl for Thor, he would bet money that Sam was internally shitting himself right now.

"I only know one person who might know where Metatron is, but it'll be dangerous." Dean began, turning to Loki. "Wanna come?"

Loki looked taken aback for a moment and Dean frowned.

"Are you sure you want me to go with you?" He asked, and he actually sounded confused.

"Of course I do." Began Dean, watching Loki relax slightly.

He began to speak again but Sif cut him off. "You don't want that Serpent with you." She informed him and Dean watched as all assurance left Loki's face and he felt his haunches go up. Not necessarily because he wanted to protect Loki but because he'd always hated bullies and that was exactly what he was seeing here; a room full of bullies.

But he'd dealt with bullies his whole life, there was no reason to stop now.

He turned to Sif. "Why wouldn't I?" He began. "Loki is the only person in this room, aside from my brother, that I know I can actually trust."

Sif continued to stare at him and Loki resumed staring at the ground. No one had ever really trusted him before, except maybe Frigga. He had no idea how to feel, except he could feel his cheeks warming up.

When Sam and Dean were taking what they needed from the trunk of the Impala, Sam knocked Dean slightly.

"Hey, you never told me you met the God of Mischief."

Dean shrugged slightly. "Yeah, I just never thought it was relevant."

Although, as the exact events of his meeting with Loki came back to him, he remembered the reason he hadn't told Sam was because he and Loki had shared a weird special moment and he wanted to keep it personal.

He leant against the car for a moment, unsure what to think as it came back to him. He nearly collapsed against the car as he remembered something else; Loki had tried to kill himself.

…

Dean watched carefully as Loki slid into the passenger seat of the Impala, it was one up on being in the back, unconscious, at least.

"I don't even know why I am here." Loki admitted as he smoothed down his trench coat, looking around the strange contraption he was seated inside.

"Why not?" Asked Dean. "We asked for help, Odin sent it."

Loki sent Dean a strange look, he looked half amused and half desperate, one side of his mouth curled up into a humourless smile. "People don't tend to come to me for help."

In his mind's eye, Dean saw the scene they had just come from, stood around with the rest of the Asgardians. It was obvious not just from the speech, but from the body language as well, that Loki was an outsider. Dean couldn't help feeling sorry for him, he knew what it was like to be treated like a freak. But from what he could see, Loki hadn't really done anything wrong, there must have been a deeper meaning, but he had no idea how to ask.

He also had no idea why he wanted to know.

"Well, the way I see it, you're the God of mischief, not the God of "oh no I fucked it up" ness."

Dean was unsure if Loki understood cursing but he laughed all the same.

They pulled up to a large, clinical building and Loki had to crane his neck to see how far up it went.

"What is this place?" He asked.

Dean closed the Impala door and joined Loki on the other side of the car. "I don't know, some old council firm or something. All I know is that Crowley is using it as his base of operations. He doesn't want us to know about it, but there's not much I don't know about."

Loki stared across at Dean for a few moments. He was starting to believe that. How could a human, a simple human, command the same sort of power and respect as Odin?

Maybe Dean wasn't just a simple human.

"Who's Crowley?" Loki asked.

"Technically, he's a demon. The king of hell."

Loki raised his eyebrows to the building again. "So I suppose he doesn't think all that highly of himself." He joked.

Dean laughed and the pair started towards the building. "You know, most people get scared when the phrase "king of hell" comes up."

"King's aren't as impressive as people think they are."

"Yeah, I guess. Being the son of a king probably takes the magic out of it."

Loki bristled slightly at the comment.

"So, hey," Dean continued, turning and walking backwards so he was face to face with the God. "I suppose you're King one day."

Loki shook his head, the ghost of a smile on his lips. "No, not me. Thor is older."

"Yeah, but what if he doesn't want it? Does he want it?"

Loki shrugged. "We don't really talk about the throne much, we know it's something we would come to blows over so we just leave it alone until it becomes an issue."

Dean nodded and turned back to the front. "Yeah, I get that." His mind was pulled back to the night Sam had informed him he was leaving to go to college. "So you and Thor are close?"

Loki looked like he was contemplating for a moment. "I suppose," he finally answered, "I still consider him my brother, and I still love him. We used to be closer, but his friends strain it a little bit."

"Yeah," Dean agreed. "Why does he hang out with a bunch of douche bags?"

Dean could swear he saw Loki smile but it was gone as quickly as it was there.

Dean opened the door and let Loki go inside first, following the trail of his strange armour. Even his armour was different to the others.

The building was different on the inside than it was on the outside. From the outside, it looked like a derelict crap shack but on the inside it was new and stately, they stepped into a large, plushly decorated foyer that seemed almost too big to belong to the same building.

"Like a weird TARDIS." Dean pointed out, earning a quizzical look from Loki. He rolled his eyes good naturedly. "You better stick around, I've got a lot of pop culture to show you."

Again, Loki had to fight off a smile. Reminding himself that he was a warrior from Asgard, not a teenager.

"Okay." Was all he said.

A man in a sharp black suit walked up to them, expression stony. "Can I help you?"

"Yeah," began Dean, walking forward, "why don't you tell your douche bag of a boss that Dean Winchester is here to see him."

"Sir..."

"Immediately." Loki interjected, face suddenly as severe as the smartly dressed demons'. The demon looked him up and down, taking in the strange attire, and nodded curtly to them.

"Take a seat." He told them coldly before turning on his heel and leaving.

Dean raised an eyebrow in Loki's direction.

"What?" Asked the God and Dean shook his head.

"Nothing."

The minutes ticked by and still no sign of Crowley, or of anyone else for that matter.

Dean began to pace the foyer and Loki glanced up from the spot of carpet he was studying intensely. "I take it you're not renowned for your patience."

Dean looked over to him, sat languidly on the leather sofa, staring at him with a look of serenity. "You seem very calm." Dean replied. "Don't take this the wrong way but you seemed really on edge with all the others in Shield just now, now you're acting like you don't have a care in the world."

Loki shrugged. "Maybe you're good for me." He answered, not realising the gravity of his words until he had said them. Dean's mouth fell open slightly and he turned away before Loki could see him, Loki blushed furiously and stared back at the carpet, willing the blood to go back to where it belonged.

Of course he preferred Dean's company to the warriors or to Sif, or to any Asgardian's for that matter. Of course he preferred light joking and genuine appreciation to constant slander and bullying, he just never realised he was being to obvious about it.

He instinctively sat up a little straighter, determined to prove to Dean that he was not wrong to want his help. That he was just as impressive and professional as the rest of them.

"Screw this." Dean said after a moment, pulling the demon knife from his belt, Loki chuckled slightly.

"What?" Dean asked, turning to him.

Loki pulled aside his trench coat to reveal a similar dagger in his belt. "Snap."

Dean looked at him coyly. "You could have told me you had a weapon."

"Well, generally it's a sceptre but I thought that might be a little conspicuous."

Dean laughed out loud but was interrupted by a lazy voice. "Glad to know you're enjoying yourselves."

They both turned to see the same demon from earlier staring at them, Loki got to his feet. "What's taking him so long?" He asked, "do you expect us to wait around all day, I do not appreciate being mocked like this." His voice had gone substantially lower and his pale blue eyes seemed to darken a notch.

Dean stood back a step, Loki could be damn intimidating when he chose. He seemed so normal and down to Earth that Dean kept forgetting that at the end of the day, Loki was a God, not only that, he was a prince who'd probably been trained to fight since he could walk. He'd probably been in wars, too.

The demons' eyes wavered slightly. "Err, Crowley isn't in."

Dean nodded. "I see, and by that, you mean you told him I was here and he ran away."

They didn't even wait for him to reply, all it took was one shared look between the God and the hunter and they bounded past the demon and through the foyer, finding the first flight of stairs they could.

"He's just going to get what he needs and teleport out!" Dean shouted as they ran.

"What room is he in?" Asked Loki.

Dean told him the one his office had been in the last time he'd been here and once they reached it, Dean tried the handle but it was locked. All it took was one swift kick from Loki and the door was flung from his hinges.

Dean ran in to find Crowley quickly gathering up a stack of paperwork, he grinned at them for a moment.

"Goodbye, boys." Was all he said.

Without warning, Loki thrust his hand out and a stream of red light escaped his palm and locked itself around the demon, Dean watched in a mixture of shock and awe as Crowley became resolutely trapped.

"Woah." Said Dean.

Crowley glared at Loki. "Frost Giant." He spat, Loki wavered for a second but kept the magic circulating.

Dean walked slowly around Crowley, inspecting the red hue that enveloped him. "This is so cool." He said.

"Really?" Asked Loki, genuine surprise in his voice. No one had ever thought his magic was impressive before, they just thought it was trickery.

"Yeah, if you two could stop bromancing for a second, maybe you could let me go?" Crowley said.

"Not a chance." Dean shot back.

Crowley rolled his eyes and looked at them. "What are the odds of this, a trickster and a hunter working together?"

"Yeah, well, things have happened we can't deal with on our own."

"Ah." Crowley nodded. "The angels."

The pair continued to stare at him unrelentingly until he sighed loudly. "Look, they said a guy had Asgardian armour downstairs and I thought you'd come for me. I didn't realise Dean was with you."

Loki looked confused. "What would Odin want with you?"

Crowley didn't answer for a moment. "It's not Odin I have to worry about with you, is it?" He said finally.

Dean looked to see Loki's expression had gone blank. "No, I suppose not." He admitted.

"So can you let me go, I suppose it's info you want."

Loki turned to Dean. "You know this demon better than I do. It's down to you."

Dean nodded. "Yeah, let him go."

Carefully, Loki retracted his magic back into his veins. Crowley visibly sighed and sat down in his chair behind his desk. "Seat?" He offered, but neither of them sat down.

"What do you want to know?" He finally asked.

Loki again looked to Dean. Crowley laughed.

"Wow, Dean. This must be a first for you, not being the muscle on a mission, I guess it's quite life affirming for you."

"Shut up," Dean began. "Where is Metatron?"

"Can't help you, I'm afraid." Crowley answered.

Dean raised an eyebrow at him. "Come on, Crowley. If anyone wants to mess with heaven, then it's you."

"Oh yes, it seems like an obvious thing for me to do. Randomly chuck all the angels out onto the streets, I don't know anything."

Dean walked forward and placed both hands on the desk in front of him. "You have spies everywhere, you've seen something."

Loki suddenly understood why Dean had suspected him of being a demon when they'd first met.

Crowley nodded. "Okay, so what do I get in return for telling you what I know?"

Dean smiled as something occurred to him. "How about I don't have my companion tell Odin where you are, because you're obviously running from Asgard, I'm sure you don't want the force of that on your back, especially while you're trying to build your little empire."

Crowley shut his eyes. "Damn you." He said before opening them.

Dean folded his arms. "So?"

Crowley looked like he was stealing himself for a moment. "No one knows where Metatron is, he's disappeared amongst the humans for some reason, probably hiding. But, I do know how he evicted the angels from heaven."

Dean tried to remain expressionless. "Really, how?"

"I think you would have figured it out by now," Crowley began, "I really give you too much credit. Maybe Sam's thought of it, although in his state..."

Dean immediately pulled the demon knife out of his belt and directed it at Crowley, although Loki suspected that was more for the mention of his brother than the pressing need for information.

"Okay," began Crowley, putting his hands up. "He had an angel tablet."

Dean remained motionless for a moment.

"Angel tablet?" Asked Loki from behind him. "What does that mean?"

"Metatron is the scribe of God," Dean explained without turning around, "there are tablet's for everything, probably with instructions on how to kick the angels out."

"And...possibly instructions on how to put them back?" Loki guessed.

Dean looked to Crowley. "Where is the tablet?"

"I don't know."

Dean pressed the blade to his throat.

"Dean, he's not lying." Loki pointed out. "Trust me, I know when people are lying, it's all he knows."

After a moment of deliberation, Dean pulled the blade back and tucked it back in his belt.

He stiffened as he felt a cool hand on his shoulder, pulling him back slightly. "Come on," said Loki softly. Dean was glad that it wasn't skin on skin like last time otherwise he would have risked losing himself again. However, the contact grounded him. He didn't have to kill Crowley, that would be a bad decision right now.

Dean made to walk out of the room and Loki followed.

"Send Laufey my regards." Crowley called after them.

"Laufey is dead." Loki informed him.

"Ooh, you're cold." Said Crowley slyly.

Loki was out of the door before another word could be said, Dean followed.

As they walked out into the sunlight again, Dean turned back, half expecting the derelict building they'd entered to be suddenly transformed but it was exactly the same.

He turned back to see Loki had walked on quite a bit quicker than he had, he jogged to keep up with him.

"So, what did Crowley mean?" Dean asked. "About Frost Giants, or something?"

"Do you remember when we met you said something wasn't necessarily forbidden, you just didn't want to talk about it?"

"Yeah." Dean replied, feeling slightly moved that Loki remembered their meeting as vividly as he did.

"That's the same for me." Loki said as they reached the Impala.

Dean nodded. "Yeah, totally. I get it."

As Dean hopped into the drivers seat and started the ignition, he searched desperately in his mind for something to change the subject.

"So you were pretty impressive back there." He finally said.

Loki turned to him. "So were you." He countered.

Dean narrowed his eyed and snorted. "Yeah, I didn't do anything."

Loki shook his head. "No, you got him to talk. That threat about Odin was clever."

Clever. Dean thought to himself.

"You know, he was right in there." Dean began, "it's not often I'm considered to be clever. It was nice."

"It's not often for me to considered to be strong. Or impressive."

"Then I guess we both broke out of our stereotypes today."

Loki laughed slightly, Dean could tell he was breaking him out of the mood he had sunk down into.

Loki looked out of the window and Dean couldn't help sneaking a glance at him. In this light, it was obvious just how pale Loki was and he could see the shadows that fell over his cheekbones. He was almost willowy, the raven colour of his hair making him seem more pale than he probably was.

He had some weird connection to Loki, not out of some great friendship or some eternal bond, but somehow they were exactly the same whilst at the same time being completely different.

He wanted to ask him about what he had said the first time they'd met, about 'dropping', but he couldn't think of a way to bring it up. He wasn't even sure if he ever should, it wasn't like it was his business or anything. Just because he felt a connection to Loki didn't mean that Loki felt it too.

So instead he opted for safer ground.

"So, you can do magic. That's insane." He said.

Loki looked over to him. "Oh yeah, I should have mentioned. Sorry." He looked a little sheepish.

"Why? It was awesome!"

Loki let out a shy laugh. "No one ever said my magic was awesome before, they just treated it like a weird mutation."

Dean fell silent. He couldn't figure out why people had such a problem with Loki, he seemed fine, like a normal person.

He cleared his throat. "So, how did you learn to do magic?"

"Oh, my...mother." Loki told him, and seemed to immediately perk up. "She taught me when I was young, I think she looked at Thor and everyone else and saw how big and powerful they were and wanted to give me something extra, you know? She was always looking out for me." The warmth in his voice when he spoke of his mother just confirmed to Dean that he couldn't be the bad guy everyone made him out to be.

"She sounds like a good woman." Dean said, Loki smiled.

"What about your mother?" He asked.

Oh. "Um, she passed away a while ago." Dean told him flatly.

Loki's smile dropped. "Oh, I'm sorry." He said.

"It's okay."

"I'm sorry I brought it up." He said before lapsing into silence. He had no idea what to say, he felt stupid for going on about his mother to a man that didn't have one.

Loki could sense Dean's pain, no matter how subdued it was. He wanted to reach out, he didn't know what he planned to do once he reached out, but he wanted to make sure Dean didn't hurt like he was hurting now.

But instead he stayed where he was, looking out of the passenger window.

The pair remained silent as they approached Shield.

…

"You have been a while." Sif observed as Loki and Dean walked back into the conference room.

Dean raised an eyebrow. "You haven't, what happened to rounding up some angels?"

Sif's eyes seemed to hit the floor. "They were hard to locate." She informed them.

Dean let out a little scoffing noise, he knew he was being mean but he couldn't bring himself feel bad about it. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Loki concealing a smirk and it was worth it.

"Where is Thor?" Asked Volstagg, looking to Loki.

"I don't know." Loki said, eyes wavering. "Has he not returned?"

"What about Sam?" Dean cut in, looking around.

Sif shrugged. "Neither have returned."

"No," said Dean uselessly, "they didn't have far to travel."

"I doubt Thor was overpowered by some renegade angels." Loki pointed out, voice rising a few octaves.

"And Sam," began Dean, "he wouldn't either."

"Look, just calm down..." Began Fandral as the rest of them began discussing what could have happened but all Loki and Dean see was each other.

Their own fear projected in each other's eyes. Blue and Green.

Suddenly united by both of their brother's being in danger.


	4. Angels and Demons

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Thanks for sticking with me here guys, the real story starts to set off in this chapter. Be warned, I do write Odin/Sif/the warriors as a bit of a dick here but it's from Loki's point of view and that is how he sees them so I hope it's excusable, I hope you enjoy x

Fury had given them a vehicle, a large black jeep and sent one of his faceless soldiers to drive it. Dean could currently see the vehicle in his wing mirror, with the warriors three and Sif sticking their heads out of the window and observing the road below them. Dean shook his head and looked at Loki sat across from him, he too was staring out of the window but at least he was being subtle about it. Besides, his forehead was creased with worry and his hair partially covering his face so Dean decided he couldn't be all that concerned with the road.

Dean couldn't help but wonder why Odin had sent so many of his soldiers when only one had really been of any use so far. The God of Thunder couldn't even look after Sam, how much use was that?

Dean tried not to judge Thor too harshly, he had seemed okay, and they might not even be in trouble. But with the way Loki was worrying about him, Loki: the man who didn't seem to care for anyone in Asgard, it kind of proved to Dean that maybe Thor was worth worrying about.

Dean could sense the tension in the car and did the only thing he could think of doing, he switched the radio on and tuned it onto his favourite classic rock station, satisfied when Led Zeplin's 'Stairway to heaven' came on.

He turned back to the road but noticed Loki's head incline to the radio. Dean looked at him and saw the God wearing a small smirk on his face.

"What?" Asked Dean.

Loki gestured to the song. "This is appropriate." He said sarcastically, causing Dean to laugh.

"Gods and angels," he said, "more trouble than they're worth."

Loki rolled his eyes. "Yes, I agree."

Dean smiled reassuringly, "they're gonna be okay, it's probably just us overreacting."

Loki nodded. "It's not often Thor gets into trouble like this. But I guarantee you that if he is in trouble, and your brother as well, they'll make it my fault." He gestured behind him to the jeep.

"Then I'll tell them to stop being such shallow asshats."

Loki let out an unexpected laugh. "Asshat?" He asked curiously which briefly drew Dean back to his own questioning of "assbutt."

"Yeah," he defended a little sheepishly. "Have you never heard of 'asshat' before?"

Loki shook his head but the humour was still evident on his face. "You've cheered me up." He acknowledged.

Dean winked at him. "Hey, if you ever need random swear words then come to me. I bet you've never heard of douche nozzle either."

Loki let out another surprised laugh. "What?"

…

A little over an hour later, they pulled up to a large building, the second Dean and Loki had been to today. Except this time, the building looked as big and important as it did on the outside.

Dean had to give it to Crowley, at least he tried to blend in, angels had to be big and loud wherever they went. This was Bartholomew's base of operations and the whole place was probably crawling with angels, the thought made Dean extremely uneasy.

As they stood outside of their respective vehicles looking at the building, Dean instructed the driver to stay in the car on watch and they would come for him if they needed him.

Dean walked past the Asgardians, eyebrow raised.

"What?" Asked Volstagg, confused.

"You guys could look a little less conspicuous." He told them. "Not that I don't dig the fashion, but angel's seem to know more about Norse mythology than we thought they did."

Loki's eyes narrowed. "Wait." He said, he closed his eyes for a second and a green light appeared to envelope him and the warriors and instead of being clothed in their armour, they were stood in 21st century fashion.

Dean barely got out the "woah" he was holding in when Sif unsheathed her weapon and placed it swiftly at Loki's throat.

"Hey!" Dean called out, launching himself forward and disarming her.

"How dare you?" She said, "give that back to me."

"What the hell do you think you're doing?!" Dean asked incredulously, anger seeping into his voice. "You don't threaten people on your side, do you point sharp objects at everyone who irritates you, these are not toys!"

"He used his trickery on us without our permission." She said coldly.

Dean's face was a mixture of done and angry, he opened his mouth to argue further but Loki held up his hand and the illusion fell away. "Apologies." Was all he said, voice thin.

"What exactly was your plan?" Dean asked after a moment. "Go in there, gun's blazing, dressed up for halloween or some shit?"

"I don't think the state of our dress would matter too much once we start attacking them." Hogan said calmly.

Dean's eyes widened. "We are not gonna do that," he told him, "we're not gonna run into a building full of pissed angels and fight our way through, Thor tried and apparently failed, what makes you think we can do any better?" He asked incredulously.

"We just need to apply some precision." Loki pointed out.

Fandral scoffed. "Yes, because wars are generally won with precision." He said sarcastically.

"Oh, I'm sorry-" Loki bit back, "how many wars have you fought in?"

"Probably more than you!" Fandral shot back.

Loki laughed humourlessly. "Yeah, sure. Who's part of the royal family?"

Fandral laughed loudly. "Not you."

Loki moved quickly, quicker than Dean was expecting but he still managed to hold a hand up and hold him back.

"Enough!" Dean commanded, placing another hand in front of Fandral, who looked close to reacting. "You're acting like children."

After a moment, when they both looked like they weren't going to jump at each other, Dean put his hands down.

"I'll go in." Said Loki. "I'll find Thor and Sam."

"I'll do it." Sif said, getting ready to move.

"No," said Loki, making her stop. "It should be me. Dean is right, I can disguise myself, seeing as you seem to have a problem with it." Dean thought he detected an edge of bitchiness to Loki's tone and had to fight off the urge to smile.

"I will go." Sif all but commanded. "Thor is more my family than yours."

Loki's eyes narrowed. "You're a complete idicot," he said quietly, "we all know the only reason you care about Thor is because you want..."

This time, Sif's sword did break Loki's skin. He cried out more from shock than anything else as a gash was opened on his cheek.

Volstagg snaked an arm out and held Sif back, Loki touched his face carefully. He retracted the digits and saw fresh blood staining the skin, he looked angrily to Sif.

"Look what you did." Hogan said, glaring at Loki.

Loki's eyes widened but he immediately regretted it as it pulled on the deep cut. "Me?" He asked indignantly, "she hit me!"

"You were rude." Hogan pointed out.

Loki's mouth fell open. "You are joking? She literally just said I wasn't good enough to be in my own family..."

"Shut up!" Dean shouted, gaining their attention. "If they don't already know we're here then it's a miracle." He turned to Loki. "Can you disguise yourself?"

"How do angel's dress?" Loki asked thoughtfully.

"These ones? Probably suited up like those demons."

Loki paused for a moment and the same green light appeared and a second later he looked completely different. Stood in Loki's place was a tall, stocky man with short brown hair dressed in a black suit. The only identifiable feature he retained was the cut to his cheek, the blood was beginning to drip down his face.

"That's pretty impressive." Dean told him, eyebrows raised. He opened the door to the Impala and dug around in the glove compartment until he came across a box of tissues. He yanked a few out and threw them to Loki.

"Thank you." He said, even his voice was different.

As Loki began to dab the cut gingerly Sif rounded on Dean. "He can't be trusted," she told him, "send us."

Dean took a long, exasperated breath. "I'm in charge," he reminded them, "and from what I've seen of you," he gestured to her and the three warriors, "you're a bunch of children ready to get themselves killed."

Sif fell silent and backed away from him slightly, Dean felt bad, he didn't want to act like a dick to them but he was put in charge and the only place he could really draw any knowledge of leadership was his experiences with his Dad. So he supposed a dick it was.

"Guard the perimeter." Dean informed them. "Stop anyone who tries to get in or out."

He didn't even wait for an acknowledgement before he walked towards the building, Loki followed.

Dean stopped beside a low wall in a parking lot in front of the entrance and rounded on Loki. He had to double take as he was unused to the foreign face looking at him.

"Are you sure you're okay doing this?" He asked.

Loki nodded. "Yes. I can do it." He answered in that strange voice.

"Just be careful," Dean instructed, he reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out the other thing he'd grabbed from the glove compartment. "Take this." He pressed the phone into Loki's hand. "Get it touch with me with if you need back up, it works..."

"I'm familiar." Loki interrupted reassuringly.

"Okay."

Loki made to move away but Dean involuntarily pulled him back. "Look, don't tell anyone else. Sam is really sick at the moment, please look after him."

The pain in Dean's eyes almost hurt Loki and he nodded in response. "Of course, don't worry." He tried to give Dean his most reassuring look before he walked towards the building, absolutely refusing to let down the one person who trusted him.

Dean watched as Loki walked into the building, so preoccupied with his own worry that he didn't even realise that he had just entrusted his most precious possession, namely Sam's life, to Loki.

…

Loki tried to give off an air of complete confidence as he walked through the building but he was still reeling from Sif's attack. He refused to be physically hurt by Sif's problems and vowed to himself that he would never let anything like that slide again. Although he knew why he'd done it this time; for Dean.

He passed a few suited men all chatting to each other and looking through files and none of them paid him even the slightest bit of attention. He allowed himself an amused smile, who would have thought angels would be so caught up in bureaucracy?

He saw one suited angel stood around apparently doing nothing and licked his lips, this was going to be a long shot. Still, he reminded himself that he was still an Asgardian in a realm full of angels, that had to count for something. They may have done something to Thor but Loki had always had something that Thor didn't have.

He trotted up the steps to where the lone angel was standing and cleared his throat. People thought it was strange for them, him being different but it was even worse for him, he had to remind himself that it was him talking.

"Bartholomew sent me to check on the prisoners." He said, trying to reach that regal voice he had always envied Thor for.

The angel looked him up and down for a few moments before he gestured to a door. "They're in there." Was all he said,

"Thank you." Said Loki, walking towards the door, opening it and slipping inside.

The scene that greeted him wasn't exactly a pretty one. A single angel was stationed on the far side of the room and gave no heed to Loki. Thor was lying unconscious on the floor with Mjolnir laying uselessly at his side, he seemed unharmed. Sam, however, was conscious and tied to a chair, a bleeding cut visible on his forehead.

Sam watched as this new angel walked into the room, he was wearing a suit and a bland expression like the rest of them except he appeared to have a slowly healing cut on his face. Sam's brow furrowed, none of the other angels were injured in anyway. He didn't think they could be injured without healing quickly.

Loki hovered for a second, wishing there was something he could do to identify himself to Sam without giving himself away to the other angel. If Thor were awake, he probably would have known something was different, but he wasn't. Loki forced his eyes away from his brother, trying to calm himself. He seemed unharmed, that was enough for now. Although it didn't take away the fact that Loki wanted to kill every angel here for touching him.

He glanced to the other angel, he was still ignoring him so Loki chose to ignore him too.

"What happened to him?" Loki directed at Sam, trying to keep his voice level.

Sam scowled at him, seemingly disorientated from the blow to his head. "They drugged him or something," Sam told him, "your friends. Aside from that, he's okay."

Loki was unsure what to do. He could summon Dean and the warriors but he failed to see what help that would bring. He racked his brains for an idea before it came to him. Earlier that day he'd told Dean that his mother had given him magic so he would have an edge, something that would give him a permanent advantage over everyone else, and it did. What the biggest advantage was at this moment was that no one in this room knew he had it.

Walking towards his brother, Loki knelt down and heaved Thor onto a nearby sofa, neglecting to even look at Mjolnir, he rubbed his hands together and turned to Sam who was staring at him with his eyebrows raised.

"You're strong." He commented.

"It's an angel thing." He said, hoping it would surface. He glanced across to Sam who was now staring, disinterested, at the wall opposite. He supposed it did.

"So..." Loki continued, walking away from Thor and Mjolnir, he kept the other angel in his eyeline. "Bartholomew sent me here to question you on the whereabouts of your...brother." He tried his best not to make it sound like a question. He had no idea why he was so nervous, he was a God, he had a tactical advantage. He was the trickster and he was nervous a trick wasn't going to work.

"Why would the angels want Dean?" Sam asked.

Loki tried for his most evil grin, which wasn't that hard to accomplish, and clasped his hands behind his back, strolling slowly behind Sam's chair.

"Because your brother is a threat to the angels and we need to eliminate..." as he continued to draw out threats he didn't necessarily understand, he began to concentrate on the ropes binding Sam's hands to the chair. More specifically, on the individual fibres that held them together. Under his gaze, one by one, they began to disintegrate. After a few minutes of intense concentration, the ropes fell away and Loki staggered back slightly, that had been exhausting.

Sam jumped slightly as he felt the weight around his wrists disappear, he moved his hands around before he realised he was no longer tied down. He watched suspiciously as the angel who had been threatening him came back into view, looking more tired than he had before.

The angel sent a look to Sam that clearly told him not to say a word, Sam looked over to the other angel standing guard, who seemed not to notice Sam's sudden freedom.

He kept his hands behind the chair and looked up to his liberator, wondering exactly what was going on.

Before either of them could say anything, Bartholomew strolled casually into the room, he stopped when he caught sight of Loki. "Who are you?" He asked.

Loki searched around in his head for any angelic name he'd ever heard before. "Ezekiel." He decided, having heard Dean mention the name at some point.

Bartholomew's features immediately relaxed. "Brother." He began, smiling. "I heard you had died in the fall."

Loki tried to smile as naturally as possible, it came easily to him, he was the trickster. "No, I do not know where the rumour came from. I am well."

Bartholomew came forward and embraced him. "It is good to see you."

"And you." Loki said, hugging him back. He supposed it was his ethereal aura that had alleviated Bartholomew's suspicions, he feared if he had been a human he would not have been believed so easily.

"You," Bartholomew said to the angelic guard, "you may leave us."

The guard did so immediately.

"So," began Loki, "what were they doing here?" He gestured to Sam and Thor. Bartholomew shook his head.

"I have no idea, that's what I've been trying to figure out. That one," he gestured to Thor, "he's not of this world."

Loki nodded. "Asgard, perhaps?" He speculated.

Bartholomew nodded in agreement. "That's what I thought, judging by his armour, and his weapon. I have never seen anything like this, have you?"

Loki shook his head.

Bartholomew walked towards where Mjolnir lay and wrapped his hand around the handle, he tugged sharply but it did not budge. "It's bizarre," the angel continued. "No one can move it, it's like a weird sword in the stone."

Loki smiled despite not knowing what sword in the stone was.

"Try it."

Loki's smile dropped. He'd never met anyone worthy enough to wield Thor's hammer aside from Thor, let alone himself. He walked towards the hammer and tried to pick it up, it didn't move, he didn't expect anything less.

Bartholomew shook his head. "Oh well," he said, loosing interest and turning to Sam. "Why have you come here?"

Using the distraction, Loki turned and pulled the mobile out of his pocket, he sent a quick text to Dean before stuffing it back into his pocket.

Taking a moment to gather strength, he turned and sent the same magic he had used to hold Crowley in Bartholomew's direction, remembering just how effective it had been the last time.

Bartholomew called out as the strange crimson red enveloped him. Using this much magic in one go caused the visage around Loki to drop and he watched as his armour came back into view.

"Oh!" Sam exclaimed, seeing Loki stood before him. He quickly stood and backed up next to Thor.

"The angels," Loki called to him, "they're going to swarm in!"

That was exactly what they did, upon hearing Bartholomew's cry, four angels entered the room and started towards Loki.

"No!" Bartholomew snarled. "Get the Winchester!"

Loki watched as the angel's swarmed around Sam, who was completely defenceless. He tried to clear his head quickly, there was no way he could get to Sam without letting Bartholomew go. He turned his head to see Sam backed into a corner, fear in his eyes, the angels were all holding what appeared to be silver blades.

He looked back to Bartholomew, already feeling tired from the amount of energy he was using, he could vaguely feel blood dripping down his cheek where his cut had reopened from the exertion. He remembered the promise he had made to Dean to keep Sam safe.

Cursing, he relinquished his hold on Bartholomew and turned on his heel towards Sam but before he could even take a step towards him Sam's eyes turned a bright shade of blue.

Loki watched in shock as Sam reached out and pressed his hand to each of the advancing angel's foreheads in quick succession, causing that same eerie blue light to burst from their skulls, leaving them lying motionless on the floor. It was like nothing Loki had ever seen before.

Dean ran through the doorway and the first thing he saw was Bartholomew barreling at him, in a moment of confusion, he grabbed the first thing he found and swung, knocking Bartholomew off of his feet and tumbling to the floor. Dead or unconscious, Dean didn't know.

Once the shook had worn off, he turned to the scene before him. Sam was stumbling around in confusion with four dead angels at his feet, Thor was lying unconscious on a sofa and Loki, in his original form with blood running down his face from the cut on his cheek, was staring at him, completely dumbfounded.

Dean looked down at the hammer in his hand then back to Loki's shocked face.

"What?" He asked.

…

Dean wondered how people even survived without him. Thor, still unconscious, was lying in the back seat of the jeep with Sif cooing over him. Sam, who had mumbled and stumbled all the way back to the car, was lying in the back seat of the Impala, still pretty out of it. And Loki was sat across from Dean in the passenger seat, doing his best to stem the bleeding from his face with a wad of tissue but not really making any progress, he looked a little woozy.

They were currently all headed back to the bunker, as much as Dean didn't want a bunch of random God's in his home, it was quicker to get there than to get back to Shield and everyone was in a pretty bad state. He'd left a message for Fury but didn't wait for a reply.

During the drive, Loki filled Dean in on what had happened, including Sam's unexpected smiting ability. Dean refrained from bashing his head against the steering wheel, feeling the guilt eat away at him.

Loki helped Dean carry Thor into the bunker, they walked through the conference room with the massive weight in tow and Loki couldn't help but smile, he remembered it.

They laid Thor down in an empty bedroom and Loki sat beside him carefully, Dean hovered in the doorway for a moment, feeling like he was intruding on a private moment. He turned away.

"Hey."

He looked back to see Loki staring at him gratefully, looking tired. "Thank you."

Dean smiled gently back before walking out of the room and leaving the brother's together, moving off to find his own.

Once he settled Sam into his bed and was sure he was sleeping soundly, Dean slipped out of the room and leant against the closed door. He wondered what on Earth he was doing, what Sam would think if he ever found out.

Shaking his head, he turned away from the door and started down the corridor, coming to a halt as Loki slipped out of the room Thor was in, quietly closing the door.

It was odd seeing Loki like this, he was clever and powerful and Dean supposed he never expected him to be this gentle.

"Hey," Dean greeted quietly, Loki looked over to him. "How's Thor?"

"He's not yet concious." Loki informed him, worry evident in his voice.

"He'll be fine." Dean assured him. "He was breathing normally, I expect the angels must have drugged him with something, I've come back from that."

Loki was silent for a moment. "How's Sam?" He asked eventually.

"He's okay."

"Does he have magic?" Asked Loki slowly, Dean shook his head.

"No, it's pretty messed up, it's..."

Loki could immediately tell that Dean didn't want to talk about it so he didn't press any further, instead he forced a small smile.

"So, we're all alive." He said.

Dean nodded. "Yeah, of course, I did most of the work." He said sarcastically.

Loki laughed, he couldn't help himself, but immediately regretted it as he felt the pain on his cheek return. His hand flew to his face and he felt warm blood from where his cut had yet again reopened.

"Jesus-" began Dean, shock on his face, "how deep did she cut you?"

"I've had worse." Loki told him, trying not to move his face.

"Come on." Dean said, walking down the corridor, Loki followed.

Loki sat perched on the conference table, watching as Dean retracted a small first aid kit from one of the shelves.

Dean took out a sterilised wipe and walked to Loki.

"Move your hand." He instructed, Loki removed his hand from his face and Dean pressed the wipe gently to the cut. Loki hissed in pain.

Dean gave him a mocking look. "I thought you said you'd dealt with worse?"

Loki rolled his eyes and Dean chuckled and continued to dab gently at the wound.

Loki was unsure how he felt about Dean being this close, he was so close that Loki could smell him. He wasn't sure exactly what Dean smelt of but it was pleasant.

He watched the look of concentration on the hunter's face and tried not to move his lips too much when he spoke.

"You held Mjolnir today."

"What?" Asked Dean, "I thought I was the one coming up with silly words."

Loki tried his best not to smile. "No, it's the hammer. Thor's hammer."

"Oh right." Dean said, remembering the look of shock on Loki's face when he had wielded it. "What's so cool about that?"

"A while ago," Loki began, "Odin enchanted it so that only people worthy of the power of Thor could wield it, no one can pick up that hammer."

Dean stopped what he was doing and stared at the God, they were so close Dean could see the silver flecks in Loki's blue eyes.

"That can't be right." He said.

"I think we have pretty solid proof." Loki pointed out.

Dean shook his head. "I'm not worthy."

Loki blinked quickly. "From what I've seen, you are."

Dean sighed sadly. "I've done bad things," he admitted, "really bad things. Some of them pretty recently. I'm not worthy."

If he was expecting to see judgement in Loki's eyes he was mistaken, because all that looked back at him was sympathy.

"We've all done bad things," Loki told him, he looked down for a moment. "I have. Probably more so than others. There is a reason they call me the serpent."

Whatever sadness Loki felt, Dean wanted to make it go away but he didn't know how. "Why don't we just agree to not judge each other on our past's?" He offered.

Loki smiled shallowly. "Okay, deal."

Dean resumed what he was doing and pressed the wipe gently to Loki's cut until it stopped bleeding completely.

Loki had never felt such a gentle touch in his entire life, he found it hard not to let his eyes flutter closed at the contact. When Dean finally retracted his hand, Loki was saddened at the loss.

"Don't stop." He said quietly, without thinking.

Dean's eyes met his immediately, suddenly so wide and innocent than they'd ever looked before.

In that moment, the pair became aware of just how close they were to each other and Dean backed away from Loki almost instinctively, Loki stared at the floor in embarrassment.

"I'd better..." Dean laughed uncomfortably, taking the wipe in his hand and walking to the trash can, throwing it away with his back to the table.

Loki hopped off of the table, feeling stronger now than he had for hours.

Subtly, Dean glanced over his shoulder to Loki and took the opportunity to really look at him. He was wearing clothes similar to his armour but made from material, he looked a lot more comfortable and, surprisingly, a lot more willowy. It was in that moment that Dean noticed how truly different Loki was to his brother, the contrast of his dark hair to his alabaster skin and pale eyes gave him an almost ethereal quality. Dean supposed he was actually kind of beautiful.

Loki, unaware he was being watched, took a hair tie from around his wrist and gathered up his black mane and tied it back into a loose ponytail.

Dean watched, transfixed, as a few errant strands of raven hair fell across his face.

Dean turned around. "Hey," he said, getting Loki's attention. "Your hair suits you like that." Was all he said before he headed out of the room.

Loki watched him leave and smiled.


	5. Here and There

Loki's breath was shallow as he slept fitfully.

He was aware, unconsciously, that he was no longer in Asgard but in his current state, that odd place between being awake and asleep, he had no idea where he was.

He felt like he was falling continuously through the air until he came to a sudden halt and jerked at the feeling of a solid surface beneath him.

Loki let his head flop against the pillow beneath him and groaned quietly. He knew where he was, he was in a strange, comfortable bed inside a strange, comfortable room inside the bunker.

This always happened, he always had disorientating dreams when he was away from Asgard, whether he was in another realm for pleasure or camping out in the middle of a war zone, he never found any peace.

He sighed to himself, he supposed it was no different here.

Loki climbed out of the bed and looked down at himself, he took in the barely visible scar on his naked chest that his eye was trained to see.

He closed his eyes for a moment before standing up and walking across the room. He flipped the light on and tugged his shirt on over his head.

He had barely finished dressing before his bedroom door was flung open.

He cried out. "Hey, don't you knock!"

Sif came into view, her face erratic. "We don't have time for that, Thor woke up."

…

Dean rarely dreamt.

Or at least he never remembered his dreams. The only nightly visages he ever seemed to recall were images of hell or purgatory or the fire from his old house in Kansas, stuff so horrific it seeped through.

Every now and again, he would have a good dream and he would wake up feeling refreshed, happy even. Hoping he could just go back to sleep and revisit it.

When Sam practically pushed him off of the bed that morning, Dean felt neither happy nor refreshed. Instead, he swore loudly at his brother and turned over, hoping to get back to his dream without any further interruption.

"Get up," Sam whined again and Dean grumbled before he realised that Sam was in his room, chirpy and chatting to him.

Dean jumped out of bed. "Sam! You're out of bed."

Sam grinned at him. "Yeah, I'm not nine years old any more." He joked. "Why are you excited?"

Dean smiled to himself. "Nothing, you were just a little out of it yesterday."

Sam looked suddenly confused. "Yeah, it was weird, must have been Loki's magic, it must have screwed me up."

Dean found himself nodding. "Yeah, I bet." He agreed before his face fell. "Why'd you wake me up?" He asked.

"Oh," said Sam, like he suddenly remembered what he'd came in the room for. "Thor, he woke up."

"Oh." Said Dean, "awesome, let me get dressed. I'll meet you out there."

"Yeah," Sam said, heading to the door. "Don't go back to sleep, no matter how much you want to get back to whatever pornstar was featuring this time." He smiled coyly before exiting the room.

Dean rolled his eyes and sank back onto the bed, rubbing his face.

It hadn't been a random pornstar this time. It had been a pair of beautiful blue eyes streaked with silver.

Dean smiled to himself, it was too early to truly appreciate the implications of his dreams, he just settled for the fact that it had been a good one.

…

"You look like you got up on the wrong side of bed." Dean observed, taking in Loki's knotted curls.

Loki stared back at him, confusion etched onto his features.

Dean shook his head. "It's an expression, I mean, you look a little...tired."

"Oh," he said, "well, I wasn't given much time what with Sif barging in." He began to rake his fingers through his hair in an attempt to straighten it out.

"So, Thor woke up." Dean observed and Loki nodded, pulling the mobile Dean had given him from his pocket to inspect his appearance.

Dean raised an eyebrow. "I didn't realise you were the God of vanity."

Loki gave him a sour look and Dean couldn't help laughing. "I take it you're not a morning person." He observed.

"I feel a little sorry for whomever ends up with me," Loki told him, "they expect a God and get this," he gestured to himself.

"It could be worse." Dean assured him. "You should see Sam."

"How is Sam?" Loki asked, putting the phone away.

"He's okay," Dean replied, "he seemed fine actually, I think he's on the mend."

Loki pursed his lips, still aware that Dean didn't want to talk about whatever was wrong with him. Dean held his gaze for a few moments, wondering why he was getting more comfort from someone who knew nothing about what was going on than he would have gotten from anyone who did.

"Thank you for letting us stay here," Loki said, changing the subject. "I understand it's a little inconvenient for you."

Dean shrugged. "It's okay, it reminds me of being a rowdy teenager, you're quiet, and so is Thor."

"Oh, that was in bad taste." Loki berated and Dean shook with laughter.

"Why are we just stood outside?" He asked after a moment.

Loki sighed. "The Lady Sif barged in there a few minutes before you came along and demanded we all stay outside until she said we could come in."

Dean rolled his eyes. "Didn't realise your brother has a jailer."

"That makes two of us."

"Why don't you just tell her to stop being such a little shit?"

Loki laughed out loud. "I would love to. However, it is easier to pander to Sif's whims than to anger her, you remember what happened last time I annoyed her." He gestured to the healing cut on his cheek.

Dean's eyes narrowed. "Well, for what it's worth, I think you should call her out on it more often."

Loki began to play with a stray piece of string on his shirt. "I used to." He admitted.

"Then why did you stop?" Asked Dean slowly, fearing the answer before it came.

Loki looked at him, a shallow smile on his lips. "Have you ever tried to tear down a wall with a toothpick?" He asked.

Dean knew the question was rhetorical but he answered anyway. "Everyday."

Loki stared at him for a long moment until they were interrupted by the door of Thor's bedroom opening. Sif exited, looking like she'd had happier days.

Naturally, Loki took her sour expression to mean bad news.

"What's happened?" He asked quickly.

Sif looked from Dean to Loki. "He's asking for you." She told him before barging past Dean and walking down the corridor to the conference room where Sam and the warriors waited.

Dean was just about to make a quip about Sif until he realised that Loki had bounded into the room the minute the words had been out of Sif's mouth.

Loki had left the door ajar and Dean could see him perched on the end of Thor's bed, he took a quick little peek inside just to see how Thor looked. He seemed to be in good spirits, smiling at whatever Loki was saying. Dean smiled and left them alone, walking back to the conference room.

Everyone seemed to be fairly cheery in there, eating breakfast and chatting about nothing in particular. Everyone except Sif, she was sat away from everyone else, staring angrily down at a plate piled with food.

Dean rolled his eyes, wondering exactly what her problem was, he found himself walking over to her.

She glanced up at him as he stopped in front of her.

"Yes?" She asked.

Dean licked his lips. "Is something wrong?" He asked. _Nice one, really showed her._

She leant towards him. "You should not trust Loki so easily," she told him, "I fear that is what Thor has done."

"Is this because Thor kicked you out to see Loki?" Dean asked bluntly, and by the offended look Sif gave him it was obvious people weren't generally that blunt with her. He found he didn't care.

"I don't understand why he cares for him more than me." She explained.

"I think I do." Dean told her, trying to keep the sarcasm out of his voice. "They're brothers."

"But they're not!" Sif hissed.

Dean's eyes wavered for a moment. "What do you mean?" He asked.

She leant back in her seat. "Ask Loki." Was all she said.

…

"Knock, knock". Said Dean, knocking on the ajar door of Sam's bedroom.

Sam looked up from his laptop. "Hey," he said, "come in."

Dean shut the door behind him and sat on the edge of Sam's bed, staring at him.

Sam raised his eyebrows. "What?" He asked.

Dean continued to stare.

"Dude!" Sam exclaimed.

Dean shook his head. "Sorry, I zoned out." Dean laughed, although he was lying. The reason he had been staring at Sam was because he just couldn't understand how some days he was next to death and other days he was acting like the sun was shining out of his ass.

"So, what's up?" Asked Sam, "you look a little worried."

Dean was silent for a moment.

"I didn't want to say this in front of the others, I was just wondering what you remembered from yesterday?"

"Oh," Sam said, "I understand."

Although he didn't. He could never understand why Dean would be so interested in what Sam could remember.

"I agree," Sam said, closing his laptop. "I don't really trust those guys all that much."

Dean's brows knitted together. "Yeah, me too. They're like a massive bunch of dicks."

"So, we got to the office building." Sam began, "and we got jumped outside like they knew we were coming. They got Thor with some sort of needle and he was completely out of it, then one of them punched me and I woke up tied to chair, that was when Loki came in and," his eyes narrowed, "I don't really remember how those angels got smited. Was it Loki?" He asked, looking to Dean.

"Uh, yeah, it was." He lied. "He told me that his magic can disorientate people."

"Well, he wasn't lying." Sam laughed.

"Yeah..." Dean couldn't help it. The guilt was flowing thick and fast and there was nothing he could do to stop it.

He winced. "Listen, Sammy..."

"Dean, I'm sorry."

"What?" Asked Dean, seeing the apologetic look on his brothers face. "What the hell for?"

"I screwed up back there," Sam told him, "I put Thor in danger and I couldn't stop Bartholomew."

"No," began Dean immediately, putting his hand up to silence Sam. "You are not well, Sammy. Those trials took it out of you and you're on the mend, it was bad of me to expect so much of you. That was why I was glad Thor was there, to keep an eye on you, but it was you that kept it together. I'm proud of you, and I'm glad you're okay. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if you weren't."

Sam smiled at him. "Thanks."

Dean smiled back. "You hungry?" He asked.

Sam nodded enthusiastically. "Yeah, starving."

Half an hour later, Sam and Dean were both sat on the same bed with various Thai food strewn out between them.

Dean opened his laptop and groaned.

"What?" Asked Sam around a mouthful of noodles.

"Research." He grumbled.

"Ha!" Sam mocked, "I'm eating, you do it."

Dean grumbled again as he typed 'Metatron' into the search engine and prepared for the fun that was to follow.

Whilst Sam was chatting about something or other, and Dean was chipping in whenever it was necessary, he opened a new tab and went to a very specific database. Norse Mythology.

With Sif's words from earlier ringing in his head, Dean licked his lips and typed in 'Frost Giant."

He recoiled immediately from the picture that popped up.

"You okay?" Sam asked absent-mindedly.

"Err, yeah. Pop-up." Dean told him, staring at the frost giant before him. It was huge, that was obvious, it's skin was flaky and completely blue with fiery eyes and sharp teeth, covered in what looked to be tribal tattoos.

Dean scrolled down the page, he didn't want to read the words but he couldn't take his eyes from the screen. Words kept jumping out at him, burning themselves into his brain like fire. Warmongers. Savages. Beasts. Killers.

He shut the laptop quickly, Sam jumped a little at the noise.

"Hey, you okay?" He asked again, but Dean barely heard him.

Everything seemed to immediately click into place in that instant despite the fact he had known from the start.

Crowley hadn't just said 'Frost Giant' for no reason, he was calling Loki one. It was so obvious but Dean hadn't seen it because he didn't want it to be there. The way Loki's skin was always slightly cooler to the touch, or the way he was so obviously paler and leaner than his fellow Asgardians.

Fandral had said Loki wasn't a member of the royal family. Sif had said that Loki wasn't Thor's brother.

Loki was a Frost Giant. Loki was one of the savages Dean had read about, one of the killers.

"Dean, what's wrong?" Sam asked again, a little more insistently.

Dean whipped his head around to Sam, so vulnerable at the moment and the guilt surged through him anew.

He couldn't trust Loki, could he?

He didn't know. How was he supposed to trust someone who's species had strayed so far from morality.

But, more importantly, how could he just stop trusting someone when every instinct in his body told him that he could?

…

Dean avoided Loki for the rest of the evening, he was pretty sure he wasn't going to randomly turn blue and kill everyone but he didn't want to see him, he didn't know what he was going to do.

So he waited until everyone was pretty much settled in their individual rooms, which was strange in itself, he had never had a house so full before, and once he was sure everyone was staying where they were, he walked to Thor's bedroom and knocked.

Dean slipped into the room when Thor bade him entrance. The God looked up at him as he entered with a quizzical look on his face.

"Dean." He greeted. "Forgive me, I was not expecting you."

"Yeah." Dean replied. "Sorry to bother you so late."

"It is fine." Thor assured him.

Dean smiled reassuringly at him. "You're looking well." He told him, and indeed he did, he too was wearing clothes similar to his armour but more comfortable, much like Loki did.

Up close, Dean became aware of just how large and muscular Thor was. He tried not to feel intimidated but it was hard.

"I am well." Thor assured him and Dean was sure he looked a little guilty.

"You okay?" He asked, eyebrow raised.

"I wanted to apologise." Thor told him bluntly. "For my terrible performance yesterday. And for putting your brother in danger."

Dean shook his head. "Don't blame yourself, Sam said you were jumped. Angel's are dicks, it's not your fault."

"Thank you." Thor said after a moment. "I will prove myself to you."

There was something awfully regal about Thor that made Dean want to stand up a little straighter but he fought against it.

"Do you mind if I sit?"

"Please."

Dean sat on an errant chair near the door and crossed his arms loosely, unconsciously protecting himself. "Listen, I'm not going to lie, there's something I want to ask you."

"Anything." Thor told him, face expectant.

Dean was unsure why he was doing this. From what he had seen, Thor genuinely cared for Loki, probably loved him. He hoped he wasn't going to reveal some awful secret to him, or perhaps offend him in some way. He decided to just barrel through, grateful the hammer was across the room.

"It's about Loki-" Dean began, "-is he a Frost Giant?"

The resigned look on Thor's face told Dean that he already knew, however, the sadness made him regret it.

"It is not what it seems." Thor told him solemnly.

"I don't really know what it means normally." Dean admitted. "Can we trust him?"

"Yes." Thor said immediately, regaining some of his former composure. "I shall tell you the story, I haven't even known it that long. My Father once fought in a war with the Frost Giants and when he was traversing Jotenheim, the Frost Giant home world, he happened across a child. An infant baby abandoned in the night, he took the baby back to Asgard and his skin turned from blue to our colour and it was impossible to tell his heritage. My Father planned to use Loki as a bartering tool between Asgard and Jotenheim in an attempt to prevent further conflict. But once my Mother saw him she fell in love and proclaimed the child to be her own and raised him as such. Loki didn't know of his true parentage until fairly recently, he didn't take it too well. Loki, I suppose, lost sense momentarily and I...I was not around to be there for him and wish I could have done more...Loki acted out, he killed Laufey, his biological father, to try and impress Odin, to try and prove to him that he truly was an Asgardian but Odin didn't see it that way. Loki was not of sound mind and upon hearing that Odin didn't approve of his actions, he elected to drop from a bridge he was hanging from, I tried to stop him but..."

Thor was getting quite emotional at this point in the story but Dean barely acknowledged it.

Dropped. Thor said Loki had dropped. That was why. That was why Loki had tried to kill himself. That was why he had ended up exhausted, unconscious and lying alone in a parking lot.

Dean wasn't sure if he was angry or depressed at the realisation; they were strange emotions to have at the same time.

"Wow." Dean said eventually. "So, do you consider him to be your brother?"

"I have never felt otherwise."

Dean believed him.

"You know the other's don't." It wasn't a question.

"I know." Thor admitted, looking down. "I cannot control how they think." He told Dean honestly.

Dean tried to think of something to say, some way to fight such an injustice but he couldn't. He had to concede.

…

Dean stopped in the corridor as he noticed Loki, sat alone, in the conference room. Slowly, Dean walked to the conference room to see the God pouring over some tomes laid out before him.

Loki looked up as Dean entered and smiled slightly at him. "Hey." He said.

"Hey." Dean replied. "What are you up to?"

Loki closed the book he was reading. "Lore on angels." He explained. "I thought further knowledge might serve to give me a tactical advantage."

Dean nodded. "Yeah, I guess."

Loki frowned. "Are you okay? You seem a little...melancholy?"

Dean shook his head. "Loki, I'm sorry."

Loki's frown deepened. "What for?" He asked slowly.

"I know about the Frost Giants."

Dean watched as Loki's face dropped, suddenly becoming guarded and ashamed.

"I assumed the worst," Dean admitted, "I thought you were some savage that couldn't be trusted, and I went to Thor and he told me everything and I feel so guilty that I judged you."

The words came out in a jumble and Dean wasn't sure Loki had even heard him. However, when he saw the reflection of moisture in his pale blue eyes Dean was sure that he had.

Suddenly, the grief increased tenfold and he had no idea what to say. He stood, helplessly.

"You wouldn't be the first." Loki told him, voice thick.

Dean walked closer to him. "Thor told me you went off the rails, fell off a bridge, you tried to kill yourself!" He didn't mean to shout, he never meant to shout but here he was, shouting. But there was no anger in his voice, only desperation.

"Yes, I tried to kill myself." Loki admitted softly, looking down at the table. He turned to Dean sharply, eyes still wet. "Then some idiot," he spat, "took me from where I landed and made me feel like I had a choice in what I was!" He was shouting as well, an ignored tear rolling down his cheek.

Dean had to fight off his own tears. He tried to remember how this encounter had suddenly become so emotional but he couldn't recall it. It didn't matter.

"You did." He told him, voice braking. "You still do."

Loki shook his head. "You think Frost Giant's are savages from what you've heard?" He asked rhetorically, voice heavy with emotion. "But they come with greater stigma on Asgard. I am the thing parents tell their children horror stories about at night."

Dean was no longer in control of himself, he couldn't have been. He found himself walking across the room and wrapping his arms around Loki, pulling his frame into him. He was still cool to touch but there was something comforting about having his weight against him, despite the fact it was Dean doing the comforting.

"You're not a Frost Giant. You're just Loki. You can't let other people condemn you." He said. "You can't listen to Odin."

Loki liked it there, in Dean's arms, he liked having a warm, reassuring weight around him. He instinctively found himself clinging to him before he seemed to come back to his senses and broke off the hug awkwardly, backing away slightly.

Dean stared at him, the room was still emotionally charged but things seemed immediately calmer. There was no awkwardness in the space between them, their was just a strange mixture of cold and warmth, of here and there. There was electric in the air.

"How can you say those things?" Loki asked quietly.

"Because I know what it's like." Dean told him, he closed his eyes momentarily. "I was never good enough for my Dad and I'm his actual species. All my life, he told me to look after Sam and all I did was fail. I'm failing now."

There was a shift in the air, Loki's grief was becoming Dean's, mixing together until it became one and the same.

"You're not failing." Loki told him quietly but with such resolution it caught Dean's attention. "You're the only one keeping it all together." Loki continued, eyes wavering for a moment. "There is only one person who can't see how special you are, Dean. And that's _you_."

The sincerity in his voice was devastating and Dean feared he would actually start crying. It was in that moment that Loki began to notice the tiny detail's in Dean's face. His bright green eyes and sharp features held together with an expression of such beautiful dejectedness, Loki could suddenly identify every freckle as if he was looking at the hunter for the first time.

He was glad to have a second chance, the first time he'd looked at him, he hadn't been paying attention. He'd been too busy preoccupied with his own problems.

"I have the life of a God and you saved it." Loki pointed out, mind pulled back to that first meeting. "Look, I don't believe I have a choice in what I am or what happens to me..."

"Why not?" Asked Dean suddenly.

Loki stopped in his tracks. "Well...because I chose to fall and yet here I am."

Dean smiled, it was only small but definitely there. "Yeah, I've tried to make some choices like that, too. But the people you love always pull you back."

Their eyes connected briefly.

"Thor loves you, so does your mother. You're not alone, Loki. You do know that, don't you?"

"I know." Loki admitted quietly. "But I'm not exactly widely accepted. I think I'm getting to the point where I want to know the reason for that. They hated me before they knew I was a Frost Giant, I just don't know why."

Dean shrugged slightly. "People are always scared of what's different to them, Asgardians and humans alike."

"But you're not afraid of me." Loki said, and in that moment, he sounded so innocent Dean wondered how anyone could be. "You know what a Frost Giant is and you're not scared. Sam isn't scared, Fury isn't."

"Maybe," began Dean slowly, knowing the implications of his words but choosing to say them anyway, "maybe Earth is like, a good place for you."

Loki smiled sadly at him, contemplating Dean's words.

…

That night, Loki slept gently despite his heated discussion beforehand. In his dream, he could see each individual freckle he had found earlier.

The next morning, he awoke less fitfully than the previous. The least fitfully he had ever awoken when away from Asgard.

He looked around the strange yet comfortable room and found himself smiling minutely despite himself.

"I _do_ like it here."


	6. Friend and Enemy

"I never thought I'd meet anyone who eats more than you." Sam commented lightly, folding his arms together and leaning against the counter.

"Shut up." Dean replied. "It's like a nature documentary." He observed, watching Thor and Volstagg eat a large breakfast from the table.

"Where are the rest of them?" Dean asked.

"Sif, Hogan and Fandral are down in the shooting range practising fighting, Loki was in the conference room, reading up the angels."

Dean smirked. "I never thought I'd meet anyone who was a bigger nerd than you."

"Shut up."

Dean waggled his eyebrows at Sam, reaching for the two mugs he'd set on the side.

"I will cut you." Sam informed him as Dean left the room.

…

Loki looked up at the mug that was placed in front of him.

"Coffee." Dean told him, bringing his own mug to his lips.

"Oh, thank you." Loki smiled before looking back at the book of lore resting between his elbows.

Dean perched on the end of the table, observing him.

After a moment, Loki looked back at him. "What?" He asked.

"You're wearing your armour." Dean pointed out.

Loki looked down at himself. "Yeah. Asgard prepares for battle pretty much every minute of every day, our wardrobes aren't very colourful"

"You should get some actual clothes," Dean told him, "jeans are surprisingly more comfortable than they look."

Loki laughed. "Yeah, I'm sure Odin would love that."

"I'm loving Odin the more I hear about him." Dean muttered sarcastically, thinking he was sure he and John Winchester would have gotten on like a house on fire.

He pulled a face at himself.

"What?" Loki repeated.

"Nothing," Dean shook his head, "I just had a thought that offended me." He admitted.

Loki shook his head. "No one does internal monologues like you, Dean."

Loki reached for the mug and took a sip, Dean watched in amusement as he recoiled a little.

"It's an acquired taste," Dean laughed, "you get used to it."

Loki raised his eyebrows and placed the mug back down again.

"Fury called me back, finally."

"What did he say?" Loki asked.

"Some crap about how I was doing the country a service and how we should get back to Shield when we can."

"Is that anytime soon?" Loki asked. "I can't imagine we're amazing house guests."

"You can stay." Dean said. "But I'm not really the sort of guy that 'entertains' much, back alley motels and cheap joints for me."

Loki looked around himself. "This place is pretty impressive."

"Yeah," Dean admitted, "it is. It was kind of my grandfathers, it's a little complicated."

Loki chuckled. "It seems to me your whole life is a little complicated."

"You're not wrong." Dean told him, draining his cup.

Loki leant his elbows on the table and made a steeple out of his long fingers, peering up at Dean. "You know it doesn't have to be."

Dean raised his eyebrows. "Oh, really? That's interesting," he said sarcastically, "that almost sounds like exactly the same advice I keep giving you that you won't listen to."

Loki grimaced and folded his arms across the table. "It's a little different, I don't know. It's complicated."

"It seems like your whole life is a little complicated."

Dean turned in shock as Sam, Thor and Volstagg thundered into the conference room.

"Turn the TV on!" Sam all but shouted.

Bewildered, Dean reached for the remote and switched the TV on. Sam tackled it off of him and switched to the news channel. Dean was about to berate him but was cut off when a giant image of Metatron blared across the screen.

"What the hell?" Dean exclaimed.

"It was on in the other room." Sam told him, turning the volume up.

"You're a hero." The news reporter was saying.

Metatron gave him a dopey grin. "I'm not a hero," he said, "I just want to help people."

"Son of a bitch." Said Dean quietly.

Thor cocked his eyebrow. "Bitchson?"

…

"So, get this..." Began Sam, opening his laptop on the table. "I've been doing a little digging, and apparently Metatron is in Nebraska, posing as a homeless guy and healing people, like a modern day Jesus."

"So, he's trying to convince people he's God?" Asked Dean. "That does sound like it could be his play."

"Power." Sam agreed. "That's what he wants. He probably wants heaven for himself, that's why he kicked the angels out, and he wants everyone to think he's the new God. Remember what happened the last time someone tried to play God."

Dean nodded. "Yeah, war flashbacks."

"What do you suggest we do?" Asked Sif.

Sam shrugged. "I'm not sure, I don't know if a simple smiting would be enough to kill Metatron, he's no normal angel and he's no archangel, either."

"Then the best thing we can do is capture him and imprison him," Thor proposed. "We can take him to the cells on Asgard, there is no way he can escape from there."

"Are you sure?" Asked Dean. "Do you really want him imprisoned?"

"I want him dealt with," Thor informed him. "He has already caused enough harm to the people I care about."

"So, how do we capture him?" Dean asked. "Holy oil?"

"We're running pretty low," Sam pointed out. He turned to Loki, who was leaning with his arms crossed against the wall. "That thing you did with Bartholomew was pretty effective."

"Projection." Loki told him. "Commanding the magic to take a physical form, it's surprisingly strong."

"Strong enough to hold Metatron?"

"I don't know." Loki admitted. "Maybe?"

"I think it's our best shot." Dean cut in before anyone could decide otherwise. He turned to the others. "Get yourself ready, we're going to Nebraska and we're finding Metatron."

As the group dispersed, Dean walked out of the conference room and towards his bedroom, Loki close behind.

"I see you're really utilising all of Shields facilities." He pointed out sarcastically.

"Yeah, well, hunters do things better on their own." Dean explained, walking into his bedroom, Loki hovered at the door.

"You can come in." Dean told him. Loki did so.

Dean began to pack a few items of clothing and Loki noticed the bed, the same bed he had woken up on months ago, he smiled to himself.

Dean glanced over to the God and saw him examining some of the weapons on the wall. Loki paused at Dean's handmade weapon he had created in purgatory.

"This is interesting." Loki observed. "It reminds me of my sceptre."

"Oh, yeah." Dean commented, walking up to it.

"Did you make it?" Loki asked, Dean nodded.

"Impressive, I assume you didn't have any weapons to hand?"

"None that would have been of any use." Dean admitted, hoping Loki wouldn't ask him any questions that would bring up purgatory.

Loki looked over to him, cocking his head to one side. Noticing he was being watched, Dean stared awkwardly back.

"What?" He asked.

"Nothing," Loki shook his head, "I was just thinking that...well, hunting doesn't look particularly fun, I was just wondering how you got into it."

"Oh," Dean said, shocked.

"If it's personal..." Loki began immediately, withdrawing himself.

"No," Dean told him, "I mean, yeah it is, but..."

Loki walked back to where he was previously standing, Dean avoided his intense gaze. "You remember I told you my mom died?" He asked.

Loki nodded.

"Well, she was killed by a demon and my dad wouldn't rest until he found the thing that killed her, he raised me and Sammy to become hunters, that's how we got into it."

"Oh, that's..." Loki opened and closed his mouth a few times and Dean knew why he was at a loss for words, he didn't want to say anything against Dean's father but at the same time that was all he could say.

Dean found himself grinning slightly.

"They say there isn't a hunter alive that chose to hunt, we're all forced into it because we lost someone."

Loki's forehead creased and his eyes were filled with such sympathy Dean nearly physically recoiled from the sudden change of emotion. "That's tragic." Was all he said.

Dean smiled sadly, extracting the demon knife from where it was laid on his nightstand. "I bet Fury made us out to be some noble people but we're not, we're just people who made bad decisions."

He walked towards the door but was halted by Loki calling after him:

"You're different, though." He said.

Dean turned back to him. "I'm not different, I'm just the like others."

"But," Loki began, confusion on his face, "you said hunters are forced into it because they lost someone. But that's not strictly true for you and Sam, is it? You weren't forced because you lost someone, you were forced because of your father. You didn't need to hunt, you could have led a different life."

Dean stilled. "I've never thought about it like that before." He admitted. "That kind of makes it more tragic."

"That makes you one of a kind," Loki pointed out, "not that I can relate." He added sarcastically.

Dean smiled at him. "You're very perceptive." He pointed out.

"So I've been told."

…

Sam was ahead of them in an old Cadillac, Lady Sif and the warriors three all packed into the car.

Dean stifled a grin, looking in his rearview mirror and seeing the two siblings talking quietly in the back seat.

He wondered what they were talking about, tactics maybe? Or maybe just brother stuff.

Dean shook his head, having to remind himself again that Asgardian's weren't soldiers all the time.

Thor laughed at something. Definitely brother stuff.

Dean still wasn't sure how he felt about Thor, he supposed he liked him, there was little not to like, but he couldn't figure out if he and Loki were friends.

When they were alone, or almost alone, together like this, they acted just as Sam and Dean always acted. But when they were with the others, and Loki was subjected to their jibs, Thor did nothing.

He had been right before, he couldn't control the way this friends felt. But Dean couldn't help but be hyper aware that if their situations were reversed, and someone was calling Sam a freak...well, he didn't even need to imagine what he would do. He'd already done it.

It was slow, slow drive to Nebraska. They had to stop God knows how many times to facilitate toilet breaks and food runs, Dean was pretty sure the Asgardian's ate ten times more than the average human. Except Loki, he seemed to eat the same as he and Sam did, maybe it was a Frost Giant thing, or maybe it explained why he was so slight compared to the others.

When they arrived at Nebraska, Dean parked up outside of a movie theatre and turned away as the Asgardian's got out of the cars, somehow their outfits made them seem regal so it kind of worked, but that didn't stop people from staring.

"So, how are we supposed to find him?" Dean asked Sam.

Sam shrugged.

"I don't know. We could impersonate the press? Go to one of the newspaper companies, ask them what they know?"

"Yeah, that could work. Metatron's such a diva, he wants people to notice him."

"I still don't get his play." Sam muttered. "Kicking all the angels out of heaven, becoming God, creating a new heaven?"

"Rule one of this job," Dean told him, "never try and understand the angels. I swear to God, this job was a hell of a lot easier without any angels around."

"Or Gods," Sam pointed out, gesturing to the Asgardian's to his side, inspecting the pavement.

"Yeah," Dean agreed, looking at them. "Where's Loki?"

"Over there." Sam pointed to Dean's other side, Dean looked to see the man examining a movie poster.

Dean shoved Sam playfully and sauntered over to the trickster. He examined the movie poster, too. It was some romantic comedy with a man and a woman locked together in an intimate embrace.

Loki didn't look across to him.

"I don't suppose you have movies on Asgard?" Dean asked.

"No," Loki told him, "people tend to keep themselves amused in more old fashioned ways."

"Sounds peaceful."

"It is."

"You look a bit confused."

Loki smirked and looked across at Dean. "I don't understand all this sexual exploitation on Earth," he pointed out, "is it necessary to have a half naked woman on a poster to advertise a comedy?"

Dean found himself smiling. "Trust you to come to Earth to fight a religious extremist group, and end up becoming a feminist."

Loki gave him a half smile, even from this angle, Dean could see the confusion flit across his eyes. But it wasn't just confusion, it was mistrust.

"It's not just that, though. It's love, it seems to be that you are obsessed with love." He gestured vaguely to an array of other posters with similar images.

Dean narrowed his eyes. "Have you..." Dean shook his head. "No, nothing, sorry."

Loki's eyes wavered for a moment before settling, Dean's jaw was set.

"So, what's the plan?" He asked.

"Err, more undercover work, I'm afraid."

Loki's brow furrowed. "Afraid? Last time was the most interesting thing I've done in a while."

Dean nodded. "I know right? It's exhilarating."

Loki's eyes narrowed for a split second before his expression became neutral again.

"Hey, guys." Sam called over. "You want to get going?"

"Sure." Dean called back. He turned to Loki. "Come on," he said, walking back.

Loki followed slowly, walking past Thor. Thor jogged to keep in step with his brother, catching his expression.

"What is it, brother?" He asked.

"Have you ever met a person who only flaunts their intelligence when no one else is around?"

Thor shook his head. "I have not, but I do not perceive intelligence to be something to be embarrassed about."

"No," Loki agreed, glancing forward to Dean. "Nor do I."

…

Dean speared uselessly at the table with his pen, he was aware that the reception was giving him a funny look but he couldn't care less. Sam had been in the editors office for what seemed like an age, the collar of suit was itching and he was bored.

Finally, Sam walked out of the office, shaking hands with the editor. She was pretty, she had dark hair that fell around her shoulders and large, pale eyes. Dean found himself sending a smile her way.

Sam gave Dean a berating look as he walked past him and Dean put the pen down and followed his brother out of the office happily.

"Well, what did she say?" He asked, catching up to Sam, which wasn't easy with his long legs.

"She said the last time they interviewed him, he was at this homeless centre." He passed a slip of paper to Dean.

Dean frowned. "Does he want us to find him or something?"

"I don't think he knows that we know it was him, how did we find that out anyway?"

Because Ezekiel told me.

"Err, when you were laid up, an angel who fell told me." It was half the truth.

…

"Okay, I want two of you around the back, and two at the front, Thor and Loki come with us." Sam explained when they were stood outside of the homeless shelter.

"But we can help." Sif explained.

"This will be you helping," Sam told her kindly, "if Metatron is here, it's almost certain he'll have some angels standing guard around this place and they're hard to kill. I need people on the perimeter I know can handle it."

This seemed to satisfy Sif. "With me." She said, and the warriors three followed her around the corner of the building.

"What would you have me do?" Asked Thor, turning to Sam.

Dean pursed his lips together, he would bet money that Sam was blushing at the amount of respect Thor seemed to give him.

"Metatron is going to underestimate me and Dean, he thinks we can't touch him, which we can't. But you can." He turned to Loki. "When you captured Bartholomew, you lost your disguise, which means that when you use too much of your magic, you're vulnerable. We need need Thor to protect you."

Loki looked mildly impressed.

"Do you think you can do that?" Sam asked Thor.

Thor grinned and lifted Mjolnir. "Protect Loki? What do you think I've been doing my entire life?"

Loki sent Thor a withering look.

The foursome walked into the homeless shelter and passed the woman behind the desk.

"Err, excuse me?" She called after them but they ignored her and carried on walking.

Dean stopped in front of a pair of double doors and peered through the small window. Inside was a mess hall filled with people eating together. Dean felt momentarily sad for all the homeless people in that room.

"Too many people," Dean said, "I can't see him, you two stay out here, we'll call if we need you." He told Thor and Loki, who nodded at him.

Looking briefly at each other, Sam and Dean both pushed open one of the doors to the mess hall and walked inside.

People from various tables turned around and stared at them and on the biggest table, sure as hell, was Metatron.

He was sat perched on the edge of the table with a group of people crowded around him like he was a teacher.

Metatron stared at them, dressed in a beaten old shirt and a puffy coat, his expression never betraying him.

"How did you boys know I was here?" He asked.

Sam scoffed. "It's not like you made it hard, you've been on the news, you're not exactly hiding."

Metatron stood slowly and gestured to the people around him, Dean rolled his eyes.

"Why should I hide?" Asked the scribe. "I'm God."

"You're not God." Dean shot back immediately.

One of the homeless people, a woman, stood immediately, an expression of deep set anger on her face. "You cannot say that, that is sacrilege."

Dean shook his head. "Listen, Lady, I'm sorry but this guy is a liar."

A man to their left stood and walked towards them. "What did you say?" He asked aggressively. Another man stood up, then another and then a woman and then another woman...in about a minute there were at least twelve people crowded around Sam and Dean. At least two of which had produced small knifes from their clothing.

"Shit," Dean said quietly.

Through the crowd of disciples, Metatron was grinning smugly.

A man with a knife got dangerously close to Sam.

"Wait!" Sam said, raising his hands in front of him. "Would God ask you to kill?" He asked.

The man wavered for a moment before a woman laughed.

"Read the bible," was all she said before lunging at Dean.

Dean froze for a moment, not wanting to hit an unarmed human woman, he tried to push her off of him as another man lunged for Sam. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Metatron heading for the door but their were too many people between them.

"Shit," Dean exclaimed. "Loki, Loki!"

There was no movement at the door.

"Loki!"

…

Thor was sat down with his legs crossed, leaning against the wall outside of the mess hall. Loki was stood by the door, awaiting instructions.

"Do you think Sif and the others have encountered any trouble?" Thor asked rhetorically, aware there was no way Loki could know.

Loki shrugged nonetheless. "I don't know. Maybe. I can't hear anything."

"No, neither can I. That is either good or worrying."

Loki rolled his eyes. "I think they can handle themselves."

Thor didn't answer for a moment. "They feel a little...put out." He admitted.

Loki arched an eyebrow. "Why?"

"Sif has expressed to me that she doesn't feel welcome by the Winchesters, but I have felt no such qualms. Have you?"

Loki paused for thought, unsure how to tell his brother that this time on Earth was the most welcome he'd ever felt. Instead, he shrugged again.

"I believe they've been very hospitable. Maybe they just don't like Sif and the warriors, we can't change their minds."

Thor was drawn back to an earlier conversation he'd had with Dean Winchester, when he'd given the hunter the exact same information. He smiled.

"Yes, you're right."

Thor frowned.

"What?" Asked Loki.

Thor didn't answer; his frown deepened.

"Brother, what?" Asked Loki, unfolding his arms.

Thor coughed, he felt suddenly overwhelmed, like he was going to pass out any moment...

Loki watched as his brother slumped to the ground, face slowly turning red.

"Thor?!" He called out.

"Loki, Loki!" He heard Dean call from the other room, but it barely registered.

Loki collapsed onto his knees at Thor's side, taking his head into his hands, Thor was struggling to breath.

"Loki!"

It looked like Thor was dying, struggling for breath, Loki willed himself not to cry.

"Thor, Thor..." he began desperately. "What should I do? What's happening..."

Thor fell unconscious, his head lolling onto Loki's lap. Loki scrabbled for Thor's wrist and took it into his hand, feeling desperately for a pulse. He couldn't find one and began to panic profusely.

He was vaguely aware of a man wearing a baggy coat running out of the mess hall doors and down the corridor, he still couldn't find a pulse.

Loki heard commotion coming from the mess hall, he glanced around but he couldn't see anything through the windows, he couldn't leave Thor, he couldn't contact the warriors. For the first time in a long time, Loki felt completely helpless.

…

Dean hated feeling helpless, he really did. And facing off a dozen homeless people wasn't exactly his first choice to go.

"Loki!" He called out again but no one came, he hoped beyond hope that Loki and Thor had taken down Metatron in the corridor.

Dean pushed a man off of him and took his gun from his jeans and held it in the air.

"I don't want to shoot any of you but I swear to God I will!" He shouted.

Sam took his own gun from his belt and held it up.

Some of the people looked just as determined as before but some were beginning to look a little weary.

The man with the knife looked around, trying to find Metatron, once realising he wasn't there to protect them he looked back to Sam and Dean.

He dropped his knife.

Taking the hint, Sam and Dean both barrelled out into the corridor, looking around desperately for Metatron.

A little way down, they could see Loki cradling Thor's limp body in his arms.

"What did Metatron do?" Asked Dean, running to them.

Loki looked up to him, eyes wet. "Metatron? I don't know where he is."

"Wait, you just let him go?" Asked Sam, sounding angry.

"Please," Loki said, voice weak. "I need help."

Dean looked down to Thor, he looked as out cold as he did the other day.

Trying to fight off his anger at Metatron's escape, Dean pulled out his phone and dialled 911.

…

"Why must humans be so sneaky?" Thor asked, rubbing his head.

"Sneaky?" Asked Sam from his hospital bedside.

"On Asgard, when we do battle, it's enough to knock an opponent out with a weapon and be done with it, not use these potions to keep them unconscious at random intervals."

Sam found himself laughing. "Some of the roofie stuff they gave you just remained in your system, it kicked in, it was bound to. But they said it's all gone now."

"What a time for it to kick in." Thor said glumly.

Sam shrugged. "Metatron got away, we'll have other chances."

"You should have just left and taken your chance."

Sam smiled shallowly. "Loki was terrified, you should have seen him."

"It is unlike Loki to loose control of his emotions." He looked at Sam. "Don't be angry with him."

"I was," Sam admitted. "I'm not sure about Dean."

…

Loki slumped in the hospital chair, nursing a polystyrene cup. Dean was right, coffee was an acquired taste.

He shut his eyes for a moment. Thor was fine, it was relieving. But Loki had failed, Dean had placed trust him when no one else had and he had failed him.

Loki never remembered feeling this guilty when he let other people down, but then he had never really let anyone else down before.

Of course he would let down the one person he desperately wanted to prove himself to.

"Hey."

Loki opened his eyes to see Dean standing in front of him. He had changed out of his undercover suit into some dark jeans and a black t shirt, Loki preferred him this way.

He didn't say anything.

Dean sat down next to Loki, angled towards him. "Good news about Thor." He said.

"Yeah." Loki answered quietly.

Dean would have given anything to make this moment less awkward. Loki wasn't looking at him, he resembled an animal that had known it had done wrong and was shying away from it's owner.

Dean tried to tell himself that it had nothing to do with him, when secretly he kind of wished it did.

"I'm sorry." Loki said after a moment, still looking at the ground. His voice sounded so light and innocent that Dean wasn't completely sure Loki had been the one who'd spoken for a moment.

Dean shrugged. "It's okay." He said.

Loki finally looked at him, eyes wide. "How is it okay?" He asked incredulously. "We were sent here to do one job and I messed it up."

"We'll have other chances," Dean told him firmly, "these things take time, I know, trust me. Don't be so hard on yourself."

Loki's eyes relaxed slightly. "Why are you being so nice to me?" He asked dejectedly.

"To be honest, I was mad. I was really mad, but Thor was in trouble. All I know is that if Sam was in Thor's place I would have done exactly the same thing you did. I can't condemn that, sometimes we have to choose between what we want to do and what we need to do."

Loki stared at him. "Do you notice you never talk..." He paused. "You never talk like this around anyone else?"

Dean stared at him for a long moment until he looked away.

…

Between them, Sif and Fandral helped Thor into the conference room of the bunker.

"My friends." He said, "I can walk by myself, there is no need for your assistance."

"Were there any angels?" Sam asked Volstagg.

"A few," he answered, "although from what I hear, all the interesting stuff was happening on the inside."

Loki didn't look at him.

"You let him get away." Sif said coldly.

Loki's eyes remained fixed on the floor.

"It is no use ignoring me." She continued, voice getting louder. "You cannot run away from your mistakes."

"Sif..." Began Thor, raising a hand to try and calm her.

"No!" She exclaimed, turning to Thor. "It was a mistake to bring _your brother_ , and you know it was. I've never trusted him and now you all know why."

Loki screwed his eyes up for a second before looking at her. "Look, I know I made a mistake..."

"You're a mistake," Sif laughed manically, seeming to have finally lost it.

"Hey," Said Dean, feeling the room getting hotter. "Don't..."

"You ruin everything." She mocked. "It would be better if you weren't here at all but what's the point in that because you can't even kill yourself successfully, how many failed suicide attempts do you have now? Two?"

The room was deathly silent for a second that seemed to last for an eternity.

Dean snapped.

"How fucking dare you!" He shouted at her.

"Dean!" Sam warned, mild shock in his voice.

"No, shut up, Sam!" He turned back to Sif. "You have treated Loki like shit since the moment you got here, and I'm willing to bet you've been treating him like shit his whole life, it's no fucking wonder he tried to kill himself! How fucking dare you tell someone they fucking failed at life? Get the fuck out of my home!"

Sif stormed out of the room, Fandral followed her immediately, calling after her.

"Dean..." Sam tried again, looking behind him.

Dean swivelled around and saw Loki. He was stood completely still, staring at Dean. The moisture in his eyes made the blue orbs look like glass.

He opened his mouth once, not to speak, but to let out a silent moan of complete desperation and stunned confusion.

He blinked quickly before stealing out of the room.

"Loki?" Dean called out, not meaning the word to be as soft as it was.

"Dean, maybe leave him?" Sam said quietly from behind him.

But Dean wasn't listening, or maybe Sam's words just didn't register in his mind.

Dean followed Loki out into the corridor, he stopped momentarily in front of Thor, whose face was a mixture of sadness and guilt.

"I would never let anyone treat Sam like that." Was all Dean said. There was no malice or anger in his voice.

He walked into the corridor after Loki, leaving Sam and Thor behind him.


	7. Hand and Hand

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Wow, all this angst is killing me, but it's so fun to write haha. I just want to thank all the supporters of this story because I know it's not a well-known ship and this story is pretty hard hitting so I'm glad people are reading and reviewing, it means the world to me :)

"Loki, where did you go?" Dean asked, opening the door to the room Loki had been staying in, but the bed was made and the room was empty.

Dean had a thought, it was a bit of a long shot but he tried it anyway.

Dean crossed the corridor to his own bedroom and, sure enough, found Loki sat on his bed, holding his knees to his chest and staring at the floor.

Dean visibly deflated. "Jesus, man. I was worried about you."

Loki didn't say anything.

Dean hovered in the door way for a minute before it occurred to him that this was no time to be awkward. He crossed the room to his bed and climbed on, sitting cross legged in front of Loki.

Loki didn't look up at him. He continued to stare, unseeing, in front of him.

Dean sighed. "Listen, Loki. I know you don't want to talk about it. I can't believe she said that to you..."

Loki was looking at him, eyes portraying no emotion. "Can't you?" He asked.

Dean's shoulders slumped. "Look, she's a dick, okay? People like that are always gonna be dicks, you need to get away from it. The stuff she was talking about, it's your business. You don't need to justify it to her, you don't even need to justify it to me, but I promise that if you ever need to talk about this kind of stuff, I'll always be here for you."

Loki blinked a few times, his eyes suddenly going softer, like the ice blue in his irises was melting.

"Thanks." Was all he said, but it was barely audible.

"Shit." Dean said after a moment, scratching his head. He had to say something, he couldn't just leave this, he knew he couldn't.

"What is it?" Loki asked.

Dean closed his eyes for a moment before opening them and extending a hand out to the Asgardian. However, his hand froze in mid air before it could reach it's target. He wasn't sure what he was doing, or what he had even intended to do.

Loki watched his arm for a moment before he tentatively reached his own hand out and wrapped his pale fingers around Dean's tan ones.

Loki's hand was cool, Dean's was hot. Just like the first time.

"I'm your friend." Dean told him. "And I can't...you're not a failure because you're alive, if anything, it makes you a winner because you came back from it."

Loki's eyes searched his for a moment. "You really know what you're talking about, don't you?" It wasn't a question.

"Yes, I do." Dean told him. "You wouldn't believe how long I've lived thinking I was a loser, thinking the world would be better off without me. I still struggle with that today, but I was wrong. You're wrong, too."

"I don't know what would have happened to me if you hadn't found me before," Loki admitted quietly. "Or, if Thor hadn't found me the first time."

Dean nodded slightly. "Yeah, Sif said 'twice'."

Slowly, Loki took his hand from Dean's and went to his shirt. Dean watched his hand travel to his collar and pull it down.

Dean looked at the alabaster skin of Loki's chest for a moment before he looked back to Loki's face. "I don't understand." He admitted.

With his other hand, Loki outlined a section of exposed skin, Dean could see a faint outline against the white. A scar?

"This was my first try." Loki explained.

Dean found it hard to tear his gaze away from the suddenly very visible scar indented into Loki's skin. "What happened?" He asked.

"Well, because of the magic and everything, people think I'm sneaky, so they've always called me 'serpent'. Someone said it, I don't even know who, and I was holding my sceptre at the time..." Loki's voice suddenly broke and his hand left his collar, covering the scar once more.

"Hey, it's okay." Dean assured him.

Loki swallowed. "I buried my sceptre in my chest, hoping it would be quick but it wasn't. It was some of the most excruciating pain I'd ever experienced..."

Dean felt a tear he didn't even know was there fall down his cheek. He'd never empathised with someone's pain as much as he empathised with Loki's, and he knew why.

It was because they were the same, they had suffered through the same struggles. And it scared Dean how easily he could have buried a knife in _his_ chest, or how easily he could have died alone in a parking lot.

Would anyone have found him?

Would anyone have cared enough to pick him up, take him home and change his mind?

"Oh." Loki said, "you're crying. I'm sorry..."

"Don't." Dean told him immediately. "Don't you dare say sorry for being a victim. If only I'd known you before, I could have done something..."

Dean suddenly felt the weight of Loki's arms around him, Dean squeezed his eyes shut as he put his own arms around the Asgardian's lean frame and pulled him tighter into him, trying to make them one person so they would always be protected by the other.

Loki realised, in that moment, that he could have any home, any bed, any realm but he would never be more comfortable than when he was in the arms of Dean Winchester.

He had no idea how he felt about the human, unsure if it was love, platonic or romantic, or if it was simply a need for protection. But he felt like their souls were the same, and they'd found each other again.

…

Thor was twiddling Mjolnir around in his fingers, racked with guilt at what he should do. Part of him wanted to find Loki but then another part of him felt too guilty to go looking for him.

Dean had been right, he should have been there for him.

He didn't know where Sif had gone or whether or not she was still close, he knew the warriors three had followed her out instead of following Loki, but they had never been his friends, he'd never had any friends.

But these humans, they seemed to show him kindness enough. He wondered what Midgard saw in Loki that Asgard did not.

Sam was sat across the room from him, not saying a word. Thor supposed he didn't know what to say. Not only had he just discovered that the God of mischief had tried to kill himself twice, he'd also had the shock of hearing it being said in such a disgraceful manner, he probably didn't know what to think.

Although Thor was sure that Sam had judged him on his actions, for not being there for his brother, in fact, for not being any use to anyone since he had gotten to Earth. Thor felt such a failure in that moment that he suddenly felt the need to apologise to the youngest Winchester.

Thor looked up to Sam and frowned. Sam's eyes flashed the brightest blue for a split second before returning to their natural colour.

"Sam?" Thor asked quizzically.

Sam merely stood silently, suddenly stiff, and walked towards the door.

"Sam?" Thor called again, perplexed. He stood, ready to follow Sam out of the bunker. "Sam, what is wrong?" Again, no reply.

Thor frowned to himself, sure he had seen Sam's eyes change colour before he had left.

Was it some kind of Midgardian sickness? Or witchcraft?

Realising there was only one person with an intimate knowledge of magic in the vicinity, Thor crossed the room to the corridor and began opening doors at random.

When he came across his brother, he backed out of the room immediately as he saw Loki embracing Dean upon the humans bed.

Upon seeing him, the pair immediately broke apart. Thor watched as Dean blushed and Loki's hand flew to his head, his fingers contrasting with his dark hair.

"Thor?" Loki exclaimed. "Err..."

"I apologise for interrupting," Thor began, trying to ignore the pit in his stomach that was quickly forming. Trying to ignore the fact that Loki seemed to find more comfort in this human than in his own brother. Although Thor was aware he wasn't being much of a brother lately.

Dean still wasn't looking at him.

"It is about your brother." He said, and Dean's eyes immediately found his; blush dissipating.

"Why? What happened to him?" He asked quickly.

"His eyes appeared to change colour," Thor explained, frowning at the memory. "And he left the bunker. I was going to follow him but I thought I should consult Loki first."

"Oh, God." Dean said desperately, running his hand through his short hair. "Oh shit, we have to find him."

"What?" Asked Loki, confused, as Dean jumped off of the bed. "Dean, calm down."

"We need to get to him." He told them quickly before leaving the room.

Thor looked quizzically to Loki, who merely shrugged back.

...

They found Dean in the conference room, loading his gun.

"Dean?" Asked Loki.

"We need to find him." Dean told him without turning around.

"I know." Said Loki quickly, "I just...how do we find him?"

"I can search for him." Thor said, causing Loki to swivel round a stare at him.

"What?" He asked.

"I can fly," Thor informed him, somewhat redundantly. "I can do a much wider search, he can't have gone far."

"He must have taken a car," Dean told him. "We can check which one is missing and then you can look for that."

Thor nodded and followed Dean down to the garage, Loki stood around in the conference room, glancing around.

_Come on Loki, you're smart._ He told himself. _Think. What would Sam...or Sam's subconscious...do?_

"Shit." Loki said to himself. "Metatron, he's gone after Metatron."

With that, he ran after Thor and Dean.

"He's going after Metatron!" He called out again as soon as he reached the garage, Thor and Dean turned to him immediately.

"He's going after Metatron?" Thor asked. "Did he tell you this?"

"No, but where else would he go?" Loki pointed out.

Dean's face dropped. "Shit, of course. We need to get after him." He looked around quickly and Loki sent a worrying look to his brother which Thor returned.

A few minutes later, Dean returned to them. "He took the black Cadillac," he informed them, turning to Thor. "You've seen it before, it was the last one he used."

Thor nodded once. "I remember, I'll trace it immediately." And with that, he walked out of the garage.

A few seconds after Thor had disappeared, Dean went to follow in the same direction. As he passed, Loki held out a hand and pulled him back. Dean was shocked at his superior strength.

"Where are you going?" Asked Loki. "We can't do anything until Thor gets back." He said firmly.

Dean had to meant to pull away, if he could, and follow Thor anyway but there was something in Loki's voice that grounded him. The voice of reason. It wasn't often he listened to reason.

Upon seeing Dean's expression change, Loki released his arm. Dean moved the appendage awkwardly; Loki frowned.

"Sorry," he said, clenching his fingers.

Dean shook his head. "Don't be. You're right, I feel like I'm losing my head."

Loki tried his best comforting smile. "It's okay, you're looking out for your brother. I would go a little crazy if something happened to Thor. I mean, I have."

Dean found himself smiling. There was such a comforting presence about Loki for some reason, just looking at his now familiar face made Dean feel relaxed. There was no pressure with Loki, he wasn't hiding anything from him, he didn't need to protect him. They could just be.

"I'm really glad you're here." Dean admitted honestly.

Loki put a hand on Dean's shoulder, albeit softer this time. The cool touch of Loki's hand made Dean's own skin feel extremely overheated even though Dean knew it wasn't. His touch felt like a balm upon a nasty burn.

Loki took his hand away and Dean was disappointed at the loss.

"We should go back upstairs." He said, gathering himself.

He walked past the God and jogged up the flight of stairs back to the upper level, Loki followed.

...

Thor didn't return for a while. Loki and Dean sat on opposite sides of the conference table.

Loki watched Dean staring numbly at the ground and wished he could say something to comfort the hunter but could think of nothing.

The silence between the pair was almost deafening in it's intensity, Loki could feel the worry coming off of Dean in droves.

"This is all my fault." Dean said after a moment, to no one in particular.

Loki shook his head. "Have you ever noticed how much you do that? Blame yourself for stuff that couldn't possibly be your fault?"

Dean looked at him and his expression was suddenly so hard that Loki was taken aback. He knew there was something going on with Sam that Dean couldn't tell him about, but it couldn't really be that horrific, could it? Dean wasn't like that, he didn't have a malicious bone in his body.

"What I'm saying," Loki pressed on, "is that it would help everyone, including Sam, if you weren't so hard on yourself. My selfish acts put my family through hell."

Dean shook his head to himself. Selfish acts...that's what Loki's twisted family had convinced him his suicide attempts were.

Dean opened his mouth to reply when a crash sounded outside.

Looking at each other, Loki and Dean got to their feet immediately and rushed out of the bunker.

Dean's jaw dropped when he saw Thor stood outside, hammer on the ground and surrounded by splinters where the ground had literally cracked under his weight.

"Did you find him?" Asked Loki immediately, apparently more used to Thor's dramatic displays than Dean was.

"Yes," Thor told them, "I followed his car through the air, 300 miles north. He appeared to park outside of some form of large building and hasn't moved."

"300 miles North." Dean echoed. "If I drive there, can you direct me to the building?" He asked Thor.

Thor nodded. "Of course, my friend. It is the least I can do."

Dean turned to Loki. "Okay, come with me. We'll go and get the Impala."

Loki nodded once. "Is it with the other cars?"

Dean nodded before heading back into the bunker, Loki went to follow him before he was stopped by Thor calling after him.

"Brother...I am..." Began Thor, but Loki held up a hand to silence him.

"There are bigger things happening here." Was all he said before he turned and disappeared into the bunker.

Thor frowned. Loki followed this Winchester the way he used to follow him. It made him feel uneasy and alone at the same time.

He picked up Mjolnir.

…

Loki found Dean in the bunker, standing with his legs apart and his arms crossed.

Loki frowned, unsure why Dean had adopted a protective stance until he saw who Dean was talking to.

Sif was stood before Dean. Hogan, Fandral and Volstagg were leant against various vehicles that Loki couldn't identify.

When his gaze reached them, they looked away.

"You should allow us to help, if your brother truly is going after Metatron. It is why we were sent to Earth." Sif was telling Dean.

"I don't need your help." Dean told her coldly, "why don't you just go back to Asgard? You're not needed here."

Sif turned her gaze to Loki who was stood behind Dean, unsure what to do with himself.

"Loki..." She began reproachfully, as if looking for his support.

"Don't talk to him." Dean said, unconsciously moving in front of the Frost Giant. "Just go."

Sif's eyes didn't leave Loki's for a long a moment and Loki looked away, uncomfortable. He finally heard Sif call the warriors three to follow her, telling them they were to await Thor's direction until the party ascended the stairs to the bunker.

Loki kept his eyes on Dean's back, watching the hunter visibly deflate in front of him.

"Sorry about that." He said without turning to Loki. "I know you can look after yourself."

Loki smiled to himself, glad that Dean couldn't see him. "It's fine." He said quietly, although what he really meant was, _thank you._

…

The drive was a tense one, mainly because they had to keep rendezvousing with Thor to make sure they were going in the right direction but also because there was the ever-present fear that Sam may have left before they even got there.

Apparently, however, luck was on their side as they saw a black Cadillac parked where Thor had told them to stop.

The large building looked like a school to Dean, he shook his head to himself. Why would Zeke drag Sam to a school to track down Metatron? He would never understand angels.

Dean watched as Loki shrugged out of his coat and threw it onto the back seat, leaving him dressed in only the tunic of his armour.

His bare arms seemed more muscular now than when Dean had first saw them when they'd met a year ago, but he couldn't he sure.

He watched as Loki pulled a hair tie from his wrist and quickly pulled his hair up into a loose ponytail, a few stray strands of raven fringe falling into his eyes.

"Why don't you just cut it off?" Dean asked as Loki pushed the errant strands behind his ear.

Loki smiled shallowly as he walked over to the Winchester. "My mother would kill me, it's an Asgardian thing."

Dean bit back a comment that he liked Loki's hair just the way it was because he felt this wasn't necessarily the time or the place to hit on an ancient trickster god, he merely nodded in agreement.

"This is where human's and Asgardian's differ, my dad would have killed me if I grew my hair out that long."

"Sam's is pretty long." Loki observed as the pair made the walk to the entrance of the school.

"Sam was always a bit of a rebel."

Loki laughed but the sound died in his throat when he saw Thor stood next to what remained of the glass entrance door.

"Did you do that?" He asked, glancing at Mjolnir.

Thor shook his head. "Sam did this, I watched him punch through it with his bare hands. I have never seen such strength in a human."

"No, nor I." Loki said, confused. He turned to Dean but he was already through the door.

Loki sighed lightly and followed after him, hoping one day Dean would trust him enough to share the information with him as he was beginning to get quite curious.

"Why would Sam go to a place of learning?" Asked Thor after a moment, startling Loki momentarily as he hadn't realised that the God of thunder was walking behind him.

"I think something must have brought him here." Began Dean, producing a torch from his coat pocket and illuminating some of the space around them. "Ze...Sam is an efficient tracker."

Efficient tracker. Loki repeated in his head. Dean would have never said anything like that around Sam.

Loki looked curiously at the plastic chairs and blue walls illuminated by Dean's torch, unsure how anything here could have stimulated learning. He vaguely recalled the golden spires and pristine framework of Asgardian schools with a nostalgic sigh. Things weren't as perfect on Asgard when you grew up.

Dean heard the sigh and swiveled, lighting Loki with the torch. "What's wrong?" He asked a little edgily.

Loki lifted his hand to protect his eyes from the glare of artificial light. "Ah, nothing. I just remembered something useless."

The light danced off of the muscles in Loki's bare arms and Dean was momentarily mesmerised by it before he remembered that he was supposed to be worried about Sam.

Thor laughed slightly. "Brother, you look like me."

Loki echoed his brothers laugh a little humourlessly, not able to tell Thor he actually thought his armour was a little restricting and was glad for the chance to finally shed some of it.

Dean swiveled the torch back to the front and the group continued to walk through the corridors until Loki stopped them.

"What?" Asked Dean.

Loki put a hand up to shush him and listened carefully. "I think I can hear something."

"What?" Dean repeated. "I can't hear anything."

"It's coming from over there." Loki said, pointing north.

A man's shout came from that direction and Dean's eyes widened. "Okay, now I hear it." He said before all three took off in the same direction.

Dean was momentarily shocked at how fast Loki could run until he reminded himself that he needed to stop doing that. Loki was a strong, powerful Asgardian who didn't need Dean to watch over him. It was somewhat liberating.

Thor was the first one to skid into the upturned classroom. His eyes bulged from his skull as he saw Metatron sat on a plastic chair with Sam looming over him, brandishing some form of silver blade.

Metatron already had numerous cuts on his face.

"Where is the angel tablet?" Sam roared at him.

"Jesus, Zeke. What are you doing?!" Dean raged, storming into the room.

Zeke turned suddenly in their direction, distracted by their sudden entrance.

Metatron wasn't wasting any time, he immediately ran from his chair and to the door but Loki wasn't about to let him go again. He extended his arm and concentrated, watching the red mist jump from his hand and wrap itself around Metatron, becoming stronger than steel.

Of all of Loki's power, physical projection was one of the most taxing. He found himself getting tired immediately.

"Where is the angel tablet?" Zeke thundered again.

"What are you going on about?" Asked Dean. "What are you doing?"

"We need to break the angel tablet, that will open the doors to heaven again."

"What?" Dean repeated, unsure what the hell was going on.

He looked at Metatron, struggling against his bonds. "Is it true? Is that how you break the spell, by destroying the tablet?"

Metatron stopped thrashing and suddenly Dean had his answer.

"Where is it?" He asked, turning to Zeke. "Where did you find him?"

"Here." Zeke told them, gesturing around the room. "I tracked him to this school, he seemed to think no one would look for him here."

"What is your brother going to say when he finds out what you've done to him?" Sneered Metatron. "You're a monster!"

Dean shook his head quickly. "You're the monster here. You can't confuse me with your damn trickery, where is the tablet?"

Metatron didn't say anything.

"Wait, you said this was a school?" Thor suddenly asked from across the room. "And you said he hid here because no one would suspect him? I think I know where it might be."

Dean turned to Loki, who was now looking a little worse for wear. "Loki, I know it's bad, but can you hold him just a little longer?"

"Do what you need to do." Loki said, surprisingly calmly. "I'll wait as long as you need me to."

Dean sent him a quick smile, comforted by the fact that he knew that he didn't have to worry about Loki, and turned to Thor.

"Where is it?"

"Come with me." Thor told him, leaving the room, Dean followed.

"Tablet's are essentially stones with engraved script, are they not?" Thor asked as they walked.

"Yeah, I guess."

"So it is little more than a book. And we are in a school."

Dean blinked. "You think it's in the library."

"This scribe appears to have a twisted sense of humour, and people might ignore such a thing if it is surrounded by other books of similar shape and..."

"Thor, you're a genius!" Dean praised, looking around himself for some sort of sign board. "Where is the library?"

…

They located the library around 20 minutes later and Dean began to get worried as they entered.

"How long can Loki sustain that level of magic?" He asked.

"I do not know." Thor admitted. "He often hides the extent of his magic from us."

"What, why?"

"Because he is worried it makes him an outsider."

"And does it?"

"..."

Dean shook his head. "Can Loki do anything right on Asgard?" He asked incredulously, walking quickly down an aisle to avoid Thor's answer.

Where would the scribe of God hide a tablet in a library? Dean asked himself, before stopping in front of a sign.

**Crime and Mystery**

Dean sighed to himself, never feeling more done than he did in that moment.

It took him less than 2 minutes to locate the tablet, wedged in-between a dog-eared Miss Marple and a gigantic volume of Sherlock Holmes.

"Oh, you found it." Thor said, sounding a little disheartened.

"I know." Dean agreed. "This seems a little anti-climatic."

The pair made their way down to Loki and Zeke and when they got in there Dean was at least expecting Metatron to have escaped or something but Loki was still holding him, looking a little bored. Zeke was leaning against the wall, waiting, but immediately straightened when he saw what Dean was holding.

"You found it?" He said, sounding a little surprised.

Dean nodded. "Don't get too excited. Shit hiding place, dude." Dean said, facing Metatron.

He scowled."Well, I wasn't expecting you to have anyone as powerful as him with you who could track me down."

Dean's face remained stony. "Smash it."

Dean placed the tablet on the ground and Thor walked forward, hammer at the ready. With an almighty blast, the angel tablet was reduced to rubble.

Everything was eerily silent.

"Is that it?" Asked Thor after a moment.

"I can feel the veil lifting." Zeke said, closing his eyes. Dean could swear he saw his mouth twitching up into a small smile. "The doors to heaven have opened again."

"Yay." Said Dean a little sullenly. "What now?"

"I don't want to worry anyone..." Came Loki's voice from across the room.

Dean and Thor swiveled to see Loki straining as his magic started to loose it's colour. Thor strode forward two steps and seized Metatron with his giant grip.

Loki allowed his magic to dissipate and staggered back as the red mist swirled in the air.

Dean surged forward and caught the God before he fell to the floor.

"Hey, you okay?" Dean asked softly.

Loki nodded and risked a tired smile.

"They can ascend to heaven now." Came Zeke's voice from across the room, like he wasn't particularly addressing anyone.

Now that the adrenalin was starting to wear off, Dean finally allowed the anger he was feeling consume him. He carefully let Loki go and rounded on Zeke.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Asked Dean angrily. "You can't just take control of Sam like that. What if Metatron had hurt you?"

"I had to stop Metatron!" Zeke replied. "When no one else could."

Loki rolled his eyes. "I suppose we should take him to the Asgardian prisons, until Shield figure out what to do with him."

Zeke nodded. "That is satisfactory." He said before leaning his head back, his eyes momentarily flashed blue.

"Hey, no! Don't change!" Dean shouted, moving forward suddenly.

Zeke looked back at him and frowned. "Why? Do you not want your brother back?"

"Of course I do!" Dean snapped. "Just, wait until we get back to the bunker. Then I can make up some story to satisfy Sam."

"As you wish."

…

Loki perched on the hood of the Impala, casting a glance back at the school.

"Hey." Dean said, walking up next to him. "How long is this going to take?"

Loki shrugged. "Not long, I guess. People don't generally argue with Thor's authority."

Dean nodded. The pair lapsed into silence.

"Do you feel like that went too easily?" Loki frowned.

"What do you mean?" Dean asked.

"I don't know. I just feel like this isn't the end."

Dean smirked. "Aren't you cheery? It's done."

"Yeah, it's done." Loki echoed. "Time to go home." He said dejectedly.

Dean remained quiet for a moment. "Yeah."

All feelings of sadness were immediately banished from the Winchester as the heavens opened and a cylinder of golden light erupted down to the ground. Within it's casing, Dean saw Thor striding towards them until the light dissipated, leaving nothing but burn marks on the ground in it's wake.

"Jesus." Said Dean quietly. "What was that?"

"The Bifrost." Loki explained. "It's how we get around. I suppose it is a little flash."

"Metatron is contained." Thor said as he approached them.

"And Odin?" Asked Loki.

"I didn't see him." Thor explained. "But he will be pleased."

Loki didn't look as happy as Thor did.

"Uh, we should probably get back to the bunker." Dean cut in. "You can collect your, uh, friends."

He turned on his heel and got into the driver's seat of the Impala. Not sure if he trusted Zeke alone in the Cadillac.

"Dean's right, we should go." Said Loki, clambering off of the hood.

Thor frowned slightly. "What is wrong with Sam?" He asked quietly.

"I don't know." Loki admitted after a moment.

"Is is magic?"

"If it is, it is nothing I've ever seen before. It seems as if he is some internal shape changer, but that in itself seems a little unlikely for Midgard."

Thor laughed. "In this world of angels and demons and you think a shape changer is unlikely."

Loki shook his head, refusing to laugh. "Whatever it is, it's none of our business, it is between brothers."

"Yes." Thor agreed, looking a little uncertain. "Speaking of brothers, Loki..." Thor straightened up slightly. "I am sorry for not standing up for you before. Sif's behaviour was abhorrent."

"You can't control Sif's behaviour." Loki told him, he smiled slightly when he remembered Dean's words from earlier. "Some people are just dicks."

Thor smiled in response. "You are not among them, brother."

"I know," Loki repeated, feeling just a little hopeful. He hoped he could convey the feeling back to Asgard.

The drive back to the bunker was a quiet one. Dean was unusually quiet and Loki tried his best not to worry too much, Dean was a grown man, after all.

Dean deposited Zeke in Sam's bedroom and walked back into the conference room to see Loki and Thor stood awkwardly with Sif, Fandral, Volstagg and Hogan.

Dean could immediately sense the atmosphere but barely had time to say anything before Sam bounded up behind him like an excited puppy.

"Where did you guys go?!" He asked incredulously.

Loki watched in confusion as Dean closed his eyes momentarily before turning to his brother. "Hey, we got wind of Metatron's hideout and didn't want to...wake you."

"And?" He asked. "What happened?"

"We...err, tracked him down. Broke the tablet. Everything is fine."

"Oh." Said Sam, frowning. "Was it easy?"

"Shockingly so."

Thor sent a concerned sideways glance to Loki that he returned as the Winchesters continued to converse.

"I suppose that means you're all leaving." Sam said after a while, sounding a little sullen.

"Yes." Thor said. "Thank you for your hospitality." He said.

Sam nodded and Thor walked past him towards the door, regarding the younger Winchester with curiosity. "Sif, Warriors...with me."

Dean saw Loki angle his head away when they passed, Sif sent a nod in the Winchesters direction but the warriors ignored them completely.

Dean knew now that whatever fractured relationship Loki had had with them was now irreparably broken, he wondered exactly how that would go down on Asgard.

Now it was only Sam, Dean and Loki left in the bunker.

Loki had put his trench coat back on and had let his hair down, he looked exactly as he did when they'd first met, as if nothing had changed.

"Thank you for everything." Sam said genuinely.

Loki waved his hand. "I did little. It was your doing." He addressed them both.

Sam smiled a little awkwardly, obviously remembering the last events that had occurred in the room. "A...are you okay?"

Loki smiled softly at him and nodded once.

Sam nodded a little quickly in response but Dean really believed Loki, he really felt like he was okay. Like things were going to be okay. He couldn't pinpoint exactly why he felt that way, it was just in the air.

Loki turned to Dean and his eyes wavered a little, unsure what he was supposed to say to the human that had changed his life, to the human he was leaving behind.

"I suppose this is it." He said.

"I thought I'd never see you again the first time," Dean said, trying to keep a brave face. "Who knows what's next?"

Loki nodded. "That's true."

Dean held out a hand and Loki regarded it for a moment but did not reciprocate.

"Better not." He said, smiling.

Dean smiled back in response and the pair locked eyes again before Loki walked away and the brothers heard the bunker door close.

Sam didn't necessarily understand the strange exchange between his brother and the God but he saw the way Dean's face fell when Loki walked away.

"What's wrong?" Sam asked, Dean didn't answer. "Dean, did something happen with you and Loki?"

Dean shook his head. "It's just ridiculous."

"What is?"

"Loki! His life. It's fucking tragic. I thought we had it bad but I always had you, and no one hates us like that."

"Look," began Sam, "it's only natural for you to feel sorry for him, you've always had caring instincts for everyone, including me. It always sucks to see someone go through a shit time."

"It's not like that." Dean told him, collapsing into one of the chairs. "The other day, we were looking at this ad for a rom com and I wanted to ask him something but I didn't."

Sam's forehead creased. "What?"

Dean sighed. "I wanted to ask him if he'd ever been in love before. Because he seemed so confused by it. I thought maybe he'd been hurt by someone and it had made him cold but...that's not it. I don't think he trusts love, I think he has his mom, and a complicated relationship with his brother...and that's it. I'm worried about him."

Sam smiled and patted Dean firmly on the back. "It'll be alright. He's an ancient God, he can look after himself."

Although Dean didn't look convinced.

Sam left the room and frowned. He'd never known Dean to obsess over someone's welfare like this, anyone other than him, anyway.

Dean was in deep.

…

They'd walked a little way away from the bunker, into the forest so the Bifrost wouldn't attract any unwanted attention.

Thor could feel the chill of the evening on his skin but Loki seemed unperturbed. A perk of being a Frost Giant, he supposed.

Thor had no idea what was going to happen at home, there was no way Sif and Loki would ever be civil around each other again.

They were walking a good 5 feet apart, refusing to make eye contact with each other. Thor regarded them warily.

He was unsure of his own feelings for Sif, he was angry with her, certainly, but if he finished his friendship with her then Asgard's protection would suffer.

Maybe this could be repaired.

"So," began Thor cheerily, "another triumph for Asgard."

"Come now, it's not as if we did anything." Fandral commented almost lazily. "Apparently the famous Winchesters are Frost Giant fangirls.

Loki ground his teeth together, Fandral didn't even have the decency to whisper. He stopped walking.

"What is your problem, all of you?" He asked loudly, glad they were well away from civilization.

The party stopped walking and turned to him.

"Sorry?" Asked Fandral, looking confused.

"You've always hated me." Loki pointed out loudly, "you'd have to be an idiot not to see that. What exactly have I done wrong, because it is not about the Frost Giant's because you hated me long before any of that."

"We have never exactly seen eye to eye." Hogan commented.

Volstagg stepped closer to Loki. "Maybe it would have been better," he began almost kindly, "if Odin had left you in Jotenheim. For all of us."

Loki felt himself freeze to the spot, paralysed suddenly by the sincerity of Volstagg's words. He felt tears pricking at his eyes but refused to cry.

"You know I was abandoned, in the snow." He told him softly. "I would have died if Odin left me."

"I fail to see the downside." Sif muttered, but everyone heard her.

Thor grimaced, expecting Loki to lunge forward or to attack her with his magic but he didn't.

He looked a little shocked for a moment before he simply turned and walked away from them.

"Loki?" Thor asked uncertainly.

"Do not follow me." Loki replied softly, voice devoid of emotion.

"Loki!" Thor called again, meaning to run after him until he felt Sif's hand on his arm, pulling him back.

"Leave him. He's made his choice." Sif told him.

Thor pulled his arm roughly away from her reach. She frowned.

"I am respecting his wishes, not yours." He told her in a hard voice before turning away and calling for Heimdall.

Thor cast a look back but he could barely make out Loki's outline in the dark. He felt a pit in his stomach form.

…

Dean nursed a glass of Whiskey and looked at his watch, wondering whether he should even bother going to bed.

He raised an eyebrow when he heard a knock at the door.

He carefully took his gun from the table and walked to the door, really not in the mood for any of Crowley's henchmen.

He stepped back in shock when he saw Loki stood there, the God appeared to have dried tear tracks running down his cheeks.

"Loki?" Dean asked, voice a mixture of shock and concern. "What happened? What are you doing here?"

"Remember when we first met," Loki began softly, "and you said I always had a choice? You were right."

Dean blinked a few times. Loki had left them.

He reached a hand out and quickly pulled Loki into the safety of the bunker, and into the safety of his arms.


	8. Human and Hunter

"I'm not sure about any of this stuff." Began Loki uncertainly, looking around himself.

Dean tried to suppress a grin. "Don't worry, it's not that scary. You're on Earth now, you need to blend in."

Loki glanced down at himself as Dean went to one of the jeans racks in the clothes store he'd randomly selected. He didn't necessarily understand why Dean was going to so much trouble to take care of him, other than the fact that Dean was a selfless human being who, for some reason, thought that the trickster was worth his time and effort.

"What size are you?" Dean asked, turning to the Asgardian.

Loki merely looked back at him and Dean rolled his eyes before randomly taking a few different samples from the rack. He wanted to eyeball Loki for a few moments to gage what size he could be but didn't trust himself to stare at his body, particularly in a public store with other shoppers, and particularly because he still had no idea how Loki felt about him, or even how he felt about Loki, so any kind of advance would be a mistake.

"Come on." He said, shaking his head to clear it and walking past Loki simultaneously. "Follow me."

"Okay." Loki said, sounding very distrustful.

Dean waited outside the changing room for Loki, who didn't sound like he was having much luck.

"I don't undertsta...oh no, hang on. I get it. These things are tight." Came the Asgardian's muffled voice through the heavy green curtain.

Dean suppressed a laugh, not wanting to draw any more attention to the pair of them than they were already receiving. The clerk had raised an eyebrow in their direction and Dean sent an innocent look back, sorely wishing he could tell her that the God of mischief was struggling to operate skinny jeans but decided against it.

"Says the guy wandering around in leather." He replied eventually.

A man passing by the changing rooms with some clothes over one arm gave him a bewildered look before turning away and Dean felt his cheeks burn slightly until the curtain was pulled swiftly aside and he was sufficiently distracted.

Loki stood, wearing a simple black t shirt, tight grey jeans and black biker boots, his hair tied off of his face in a simple pony tail with a few customary strands framing his pale face.

"What do you think?" He asked, eyebrow raised.

Dean couldn't reply for a moment. Partially due to the fact that the man stood in front of him looked nothing like the off-worldly warrior he had come to know, but also because he looked  _hot._

Loki, already self-conscious enough, appeared to take Dean's stare as a look of judgement.

"What?" He asked, sounding worried and immediately retracting into himself. "It's awful, isn't it? I look awful, I never should have..."

"Loki, Loki..." Dean began quickly, reaching his hands out to the man in an attempt to physically restrain his panic attack. "Don't worry, you look fine. You look good, even."

Loki gave Dean a small smile before looking down on himself. "You think so? Do I look human?"

"Sufficiently so." Dean replied earnestly. "Go try the other pair on."

Loki gave the Winchester a quick glance before he pulled the curtain around himself again, still very much confused by this planet's strange rituals.

_Still,_ he supposed,  _I may be here for a while so..._

"Have you heard anything yet?" Came Dean's voice through the curtain, stopping Loki in his tracks as he was shucking his jeans down his legs.

"Heard what?" He asked slowly, fairly sure where Dean was going with his line of enquiry. There was a brief pause.

"From your parents, or Thor."

Loki quickly changed into a slightly darker and looser fitting pair of jeans, immediately deciding he preferred the tighter ones, and pulled back the curtain again.

"I think I prefer the tighter ones, I always got taught that you should never wear loose clothing, because of the battle field, if you got snagged..."

"Loki."

Loki sighed and leant against the wall, meeting Dean's sympathetic green eyes. He felt immediately at ease.

"No,I haven't heard anything from anyone. Although I made it pretty clear when I left that I wanted to be left alone." He paused for thought. "But I wouldn't be surprised if they were happy with me gone; a tarnished mark finally wiped from the gleaming family crest." Loki said mockingly, laughing at his own joke.

Dean tried to wipe the concern from his face. Particularly for the fact that Loki had always talked so highly of his mother and yet it didn't look like he'd be seeing her anytime soon.

However, he was also smiling for the first time in a long time, so Dean found the strength within himself not to bring it up.

…

When they re-entered the bunker later that day, the pair laden with shopping bags, Sam raised his eyebrows at the new and improved Loki.

The former Asgardian prince, with armour of leather and gold and a billowing green cape, now wore dark, tight fitting jeans, black boots and a grey, thin hoodie with the sleeves rolled up to the arms, hair tied up with his ponytail falling over one shoulder.

"Woah," was all he could say. "You really rock the human look, Loki." He said, grinning.

"Thank you." Loki told him, giving him a smile in return. When the younger Winchester turned away to say something to his brother, Loki regarded him with an almost concerned look. He was still confused about Sam and his very odd behaviour, he had no reason not to be.

"How are you feeling, Sam?" He asked slowly, Sam looked up at him. "I just got the impression that you were...a little under the weather." He quickly clarified, secretly a little proud that he had picked up some of Earth's idioms so quickly.

"Oh, yeah, I was." Sam admitted. "But I feel fine now, really. Plus, you know, it's so much less stress now we don't have to worry about Metatron and the gates of Heaven and everything now." He gave Loki a sincere look. "Thank you for your help, really."

Loki felt himself blush slightly.

"Oh, I did nothing...it was all you..."

Dean smirked to himself across the room, berating himself silently from finding the trickster so endearing.

…

Dean ambled into one of the many living spaces inside the bunker to find Loki sitting, legs together and body hunched over in concentration, on the couch.

Dean sprawled out next to him and the God didn't even look up.

"This is horrible." Loki said quietly.

"What, it's just TV." Dean said, raising an eyebrow.

Loki rolled his eyes.

"I'm not talking about that, I'm talking about  _that."_ He gestured to the screen, and it was then that Dean realised that the news was on.

Apparently there had been some kind of flood in the east and a few hundred people had died.

"Oh," Dean said, a little dumbfounded. "I hadn't heard about this, been a little pre-occupied with other stuff. Things like this happen all the time, just natural disasters, you know."

Loki looked at him.

"Don't America send aid?" He asked.

Dean racked his brains. "Sometimes, generally depends on whether or not we get something out of it. The E.U tends to look after stuff like this."

"The E.U?" Asked Loki, looking puzzled.

Dean found himself smiling. "Yeah, I'll teach you about all this stuff at some point, probably stuff you should know."

Loki's eyes hit the floor.

"This transition would be easier if I weren't so ignorant of Earth."

Dean scooted a little closer to the Asgardian, although not that close, he knew what happened when he got too close to the trickster.

"You're not ignorant, you spent your life on Asgard and it's been totally uprooted, everyone understands. If I went to Asgard, I wouldn't understand anything that happens there."

Loki looked up, seemingly a little taken aback at how close Dean suddenly was, but gave him a shallow smile nonetheless. "I'll tell you about that stuff at some point." He repeated, eyes gentle.

A thought occurred to Dean.

"I suppose you really were involved in all the politics on your homeworld," he voiced, "what with being Odin's...you know. Part of the royal family."

Loki nodded. "I suppose so."

Dean shook his head. "This must be a bit of a shock, coming away from all that power, all that wealth..."

"It was never mine." Loki admitted quickly, "not really. Besides, something I learnt very quickly was that all the power in the universe isn't real happiness. I would have much preferred a normal family. Like you and Sam."

Dean snorted. "Sam and I are far from normal."

Loki looked suddenly troubled. "I'm a little worried about Sam," Loki admitted, "I don't mean to be, I'm just fond of him and I can't help..." Although he was talking about Sam, in his mind he was seeing Thor. He quickly cast the painful thought aside and attempted a smile. "I'm sure you've got it all in hand," he told Dean."I trust you."

Dean noticed the wavering look that crossed Loki's pale eyes at the mention of brothers and knew what was wrong. He reached a hand out and put it on Loki's shoulder almost instinctively.

"It'll get easier," the Winchester promised, "I felt like shit when my dad died, but I'm okay now, you'll be, too."

"Thanks." Loki told him, daring to feel the warmth that was licking at his insides. It took him a moment, however, to realise that the heat was radiating from the hand on his shoulder.

He looked to Dean and realised that the hunter had his eyes trained on the place where their bodies were connected before shaking his head minutely and retracting his hand.

Loki looked away immediately, fighting off a blush that was trying to make itself known.

"Err...are you hungry?" He asked.

"Yeah," Loki replied quickly, "starving."

…

Sam raised an eyebrow when Dean placed a bowl of spicy beef and vegetable stew (one of their dad's old classics) in front of him and wondered when his brother had become so domestic.

But then when he glanced up and saw the recently-humanised Asgardian God accepting his own bowl gratefully he realised he knew exactly why.

"I suppose this is a little different to the exquisite dining royalty is used to back on Asgard." Sam ventured, trying to engage Loki in conversation in an attempt to make him feel more at home.

For a moment Loki looked like he was going to deny it before he nodded.

"A little, yes." He admitted, causing Sam to laugh.

"The company is better, though." Loki admitted, eating a spoonful of stew. "So is the food."

Sam could swear he saw his brother blush across the room.

"So, Loki..." Dean began slowly, trying to sound nonchalant but he suddenly looked a little fearful. "Where will you go?"

Loki chewed thoughtfully a moment.

"I don't know." He finally decided. "All I know is that I want something different to what I had before. I don't want to be like I was."

Sam looked between the pair of them. Loki's earnest thinking expression and Dean staring worriedly down into his bowl. Sam knew precisely how Loki was feeling, about feeling like he didn't belong anywhere and he felt sorry for him, and he also felt bad for his own brother's bleeding heart because the man was too much of an idiot to say anything. So, always the hero, Sam decided to step in and save the day for the pair of them.

"Why don't you stay here?" Sam asked Loki, looking in his direction but still managing to see Dean's head snap up in his periphery.

"Really?" Loki asked, looking genuinely surprised.

"Yeah, why not?" Sam asked rhetorically. "Kinda got used to having you around, there's always room for one more here."

Loki blinked. "Stay here?" He reiterated. "What, and...hunt?"

Sam could tell Dean was doing his best to act nonchalant but he was aware of the pink tinge to his brothers cheek when he smiled up at the Asgardian.

"If you wanted." Dean said, blushing. "You have the makings of a great hunter."

Loki considered for a moment, and Dean knew that he felt guilty, felt like he was wasting their time or something ridiculous like that, like he wasn't worth the effort.

Loki legitimately had the worst case of low-self esteem Dean had ever seen aside from himself, and regardless of how ironic he was, he promised himself that he would show Loki just how precious he was. Even if it took him a hundred years.

…

Loki shut the door gently and leant his back against it, observing the bedroom he'd stayed in when he had been working with the Winchesters to defeat Metatron. Now it was no longer the guest room, it was officially his room. It was his. And he had no idea what to make of it.

Part of him was so monumentally grateful to the kindness that he'd been shown that he wanted to cry, he had no idea what he'd done to earn the friendship of Sam and Dean. Particularly when he'd never really had anyone's friendship before.

But another part of him took a moment to truly contemplate what in Odin's name had happened to his life in the last few days.

Not long ago he'd been on Asgard, surrounded by his entire family, a semi-prince Odinson in the land of wealth and power, and now he was on Earth. The land of...well, he wasn't particularly sure how to describe it. Midgard was a larger place than anyone had previously thought. Angels, Demons and lord knows what else. Protected only by the hunters, bands of people who sought no payment, no reward, no recognition. Warriors who neither believed in the glory of battle nor relished in it. They saved the world simply because it needed saving, Loki couldn't help but feel like a majority of Asgardian's could learn much from them. Himself included.

The truth of the matter was that he'd lost a lot in the last few days, but alternatively he had gained much.

Hope, for one thing. Dean, for another. Loki smiled as he thought of the hunter, he didn't understand why but the eldest Winchester seemed to act like some form of beacon of light for him.

The only other person Loki had ever encountered across the seven realms that understood what he was going through, regardless of how monumentally different they were.

There was a sudden knock on the door. Loki, battle-hardened as he was, didn't jump but his head snapped towards the door, watching as it opened and Dean stuck his head inside.

Loki felt guilty inside, like Dean had sensed he was thinking about him and had intruded on his thoughts.

Dean, however, merely stopped at the sight of him, shock blossoming across his face. Loki's new human look still surprised him.

"Hey." Loki greeted, smiling softly.

"Hey." Dean replied, slightly flustered.

Dean palmed his jeans pockets uselessly. "Um." He began. "I can show you some hunting stuff tomorrow, if you like, like my dad showed me."

Loki nodded. "Fine." He said, unsure of what else to say.

The pair stood around awkwardly for a moment.

"My Father is dead, too." Loki suddenly blurted out, pulling an internal face at himself at Dean's shocked expression. He decided he might as well soldier on. "My biological father, the frost giant." He continued. "I killed him. I killed him to protect Asgard, but it wasn't enough for Odin."

Loki was momentarily bombarded by the look Odin had given him when he was hanging from the bridge, a look of such disappointment that created such despair in Loki's soul he'd actually tried to end everything.

"Hey, I understand." Dean said comfortingly, capturing Loki's attention as if he'd somehow read the Asgardian's mind. He remembered Thor divulging that piece of information to him when he'd told him of Loki's true heritage but had never mentioned it to him. He'd waited until Loki was comfortable enough to tell him himself and it looked like the time had come. "I devoted my whole life to hunting, and to Sam. That's what my Dad wanted, but it was never enough for him. I don't think there was anything I could have done to be enough, to be honest."

Dean remembered, in the back of his mind, the fact that his father had sacrificed his soul for his own life and felt that gut-reaching guilt that made him want to end everything but pushed it aside, it was no longer an important, even relevant emotion, and Dean had other responsibilities now. Reasons to stay alive. Hell, one was stood right in front of him looking gratefully back at him.

"Thank you for letting me stay." Loki admitted.

Dean shook his head. "You're one of the family now." He said simply.

Loki smiled but it could never portray the unspeakable pleasure coursing through him at such a statement. He just continued to smile at Dean, the man he knew so well now, the man he'd become so close to and the man he still didn't quite understand his feelings for and somehow knew that he finally had a chance to be happy here.

 


	9. Move and Shake

Loki stood once again in the room in the bunker that was now his own and couldn't help feeling guilty.

He didn't feel like he deserved the level of kindness he was being shown by the Winchester brothers, they'd just kind of...taken him in with no real reason or agenda other than he needed help and he supposed he just didn't know what to do with kindness like that.

He looked down at his bed and felt the same uneasiness in his chest as he took in the two outfits before him.

The first was his classic gold and green Asgardian armour, seemingly heavy and unappealing and out of place on Midgard. Beside it lay a neatly folded pair of dark skinny jeans, the one's he had preferred, and a thin-material, long-sleeved black shirt that would never suffice on the battle field.

He looked between the two and couldn't help but feel conflicted, almost like merely deciding what to put on was some kind of conflicting life choice. But he supposed that when it came to discarding the armour he'd grown up in; it really was.

Dean Winchester popped his head through the open door, earning Loki's attention.

"Breakfast's ready." Was all he said before smiling sweetly at him and leaving.

Loki's gaze lingered on where the Winchester had been stood for a moment before he smiled to himself and picked the long-sleeved shirt up off of the bed.

Loki entered the bunker kitchen while simultaneously tying his hair off of his face and was greeted with the sight of Sam shovelling eggs and bacon onto plates while Dean was leant casually against one of the counter tops, sipping coffee from a plain white mug.

Forever perceptive, it didn't get past Loki that Dean spent far more of his time lately drinking coffee than drinking alcohol but he didn't dare to bring it up, instead he merely smiled minutely to himself in contentment.

"Hey." Sam said, catching sight of him as Dean looked up and winked at him across the room, causing Loki to blush. "Come sit down," Sam said, "I made food."

Loki dutifully sat in the chair pulled out for him but his former guilt resurfaced all the same.

"You don't have to take care of me like this." He told Sam as sincerely as he could. "Particularly when you're so weak of late."

Dean sent him a warning look but Loki wasn't exactly sure what he meant by it. Nonetheless, although perplexed, he quickly changed tact and spoke again.

"I mean, we're _all_ weak. With all the nasty business with Metatron and Crowley's demons."

Sam merely shrugged. "It's all fine now." He said. "Metatron is safely in the Asgardian cells and things are vaguely back to normal with the angels in heaven."

"Cas is sorting the angels out." Dean said casually, taking another sip of coffee.

Loki frowned into his plate. Cas. That was a word that had been thrown around a lot since they'd gotten here. He wouldn't normally mind but he couldn't help but notice Dean acting slightly odd every time this Cas' name was mentioned. Nevertheless, he didn't bring it up.

"He'll know what to do." Said Sam, sitting at the table with Loki and tucking into his own food. "But we should get back to hunting because that's what we do best." He sidelined Loki with a mouth full of bacon. "Part of that it teaching you how to do it."

Despite the nervousness he felt in his stomach, Loki nodded his head. "Okay." He said.

Finally, Dean joined them at the table and looked at Loki.

"You don't have to do it." He said gently, something akin to worry in his green eyes.

But Loki merely shook his head. "I'm a warrior of Asgard." He reminded him gently before catching himself. "Well, I was a warrior of Asgard, anyway." He corrected.

Dean looked forlornly at Loki, somehow he was aware that Loki was bolstering, that his recent separation from Asgard and everything he'd ever known was bothering him more than he was letting on. Dean felt like he should have said something, or done something to comfort him. He wanted to, he wanted to reach out in whatever capacity he could within the boundaries of whatever weird thing they had going on between them and let Loki know that everything was going to be okay. But he had no idea how, particularly with Sam sat at the table with them.

As a result, the trio fell silent.

"So." Loki began finally, voice hoarse after not speaking for several minutes. "What is it that hunters do? Specifically, I mean."

"Well, we cross the country searching out supernatural evil." Dean explained, trying not to blush as he expressed the particulars of their not-so-glamorous life. "And we destroy it."

"Like superheroes?" Loki questioned innocently. "Like the avengers?"

Sam and Dean shocked him by bursting into laughter simultaneously.

"We don't have that much of a moral high ground." Dean explained, still laughing.

"Or any superpowers." Sam added. "What we do is based on grit and skill, and that's what we're going to show you."

Dean had to fight off the urge to grin as Loki nodded, because he couldn't help but feel like there was a montage coming on.

…

After they'd finished breakfast, the Winchesters took Loki down to Dean's revered shooting range, and if Dean were honest with himself, he was glad to finally have a genuine reason for using it.

Loki took in the separated compartments, a silhouetted figure of a man emblazoned on a sheet at the end of each one. He frowned to himself, he knew he shouldn't have felt out of place. He'd picked up on guns fairly quickly since he'd been to Midgard but he'd never even held one himself before let alone used it. As much as Asgard, and indeed many of the other realms, were beyond Earth in their knowledge and capability, in other ways they were still in the dark ages; using forms of weaponry and war long since abandoned to the dark ages of Midgardian history.

Dean seemed to pick up on his nerves as he sent him a reassuring glance.

"It's not as difficult as it looks, trust me. Besides, you might be a natural like I was."

Loki tried to imagine the proficient hunter in front of him as a young boy, struggling and straining with his first gun but found he couldn't quite picture it.

"A lot about using a gun, which people forget, is your form." Sam told him.

Loki nodded. "Yes, I understand that concept. Much of my earlier training focused on form, as well."

Dean clapped him on the back and Loki tried to pretend that the contact didn't excite him as much as it did. "You'll be fine." Dean told him, pressing a gun into his hand.

Loki wasn't expecting it to be as heavy as it was and lifted it cautiously to inspect it. He didn't know anything about guns, so he couldn't identify the make and model, but he knew this weapon to be Dean's.

It was engraved in silver with pearl grips and Loki had always found it to be a surprisingly graceful weapon for such a gruff person. But then Loki supposed that Dean had always had an inner grace that people rarely saw.

Loki wrapped his hand around the gun, finger resting lightly on the trigger and elevated his arm to point at the silhouetted man.

"Hold on..." Dean said, quickly manoeuvring himself behind the trickster. He felt a little awkward calling out the freakin' Norse God/Frost Giant royalty on his bad form so instead decided to correct his faults silently.

Dean pressed one hand gently to the small of Loki's back, straightening his spine while his other hand travelled the length of Loki's extended arm, keeping the appendage strong and straightening the gun to give him a far more realistic target.

The unfortunate – well, it depended on how you looked at it – outcome of the situation meant that Dean found himself moulded against the lithe body of the God, mirroring him and keeping him strong. Loki inclined his head and their eyes met; expression unreadable.

Sam coughed loudly at the eye contact broke, Dean stood back quickly leaving Loki's form more polished and Loki froze, his blush far more evident on his alabaster skin as he tried to concentrate in the way he held his own body rather than the feel of the hunter's body against his own.

Sam did well to hide his laugh behind his hand.

After around an hour and a half in the shooting range, Dean staying as far back from Loki as he could within the realm of teaching him, and after a wobbly start from the trickster, Loki began to show definitive signs of improvement.

As it turned out, Loki was not as immediately proficient in firearms as Dean had been and Dean could see Loki's fear of the weapon as he fired. He knew the only way he would learn was when he realised that he controlled the gun and he was the only one who could tell it what to do. And unfortunately, that was not a lesson that could be taught but only learned.

With that in mind, they abandoned the shooting range and, picking up on Loki's discomfort, Dean decided to get them onto something that Loki would be far more comfortable with.

He unravelled a sheath of throwing knifes as Sam set up a battered dart board on the wall.

Loki sent Dean a questioning look.

Dean scratched the back of his head. "I...err...remember you saying something about a dagger and figured you might be...you know...better..."

As Dean tried to mumble his way through his thought process, Loki fought off a smile and picked three throwing knives up. He understood the weight and the feel, knowing he would never be afraid because they would land precisely where he decided to throw them.

Suddenly, the three knives were sailing through the air. Two hit the gold bullseye of the dart board Sam was putting up and one hit the blackened outside, merely centimetres from Sam's head.

The younger Winchester jumped back in shock and turned to see Loki fighting off a laugh.

Sam shook his head as he regarded his older brother, who was also laughing now, and the ancient God.

"You bastard." He said, watching as they laughed together. He wondered if Dean could see as much of himself in Loki as Sam saw.

"Okay..." Dean began, breathing heavily as he sobered up. "I guess you're good at that."

Loki merely shrugged at him. "I can fight." He reminded him. "I'm no Thor but..." Loki fell silent for a moment before quickly changing subject. "So what's next?" He asked brightly, too brightly.

Sam and Dean shared a look, reminded of all the times they'd been separated and just how much it had hurt.

…

Loki was far more physically capable than he gave himself credit for. Or at least more than anyone else had ever given him credit for, but Dean supposed when you grew up around people like Thor and Hogan and Sif then you got used to being a bit of a weakling.

But that was not the reality here and now. The reality was that Loki was a strong and powerful Asgardian who would trump any human in a fist fight and Dean tried to convince himself that Loki was holding back as he watched him wrestling Sam across the room, but the effortless way he threw his 6"4 brother down onto the ground told him otherwise.

"Alright, alright..." Sam said, voice breathless as he lay on the ground. "No more. Jesus."

Loki laughed, a little breathless himself, as he clasped Sam's hand and hauled him to his feet.

"Sorry." Loki said sincerely, but he didn't look particularly sorry. In fact, he looked like he was riding a high in the knowledge that he'd just achieved something he'd been trying to achieve his entire life.

"Your turn." Sam said as he sat down and breathed heavily.

Dean raised his eyebrows and stepped back, hands out in front of himself almost defensively. "Oh hell no, I'm good thanks."

Loki grinned at him as he tucked an errant stray of ebony hair behind his ear. "Why? You afraid?"

"What? Of you?" Dean asked, stepping forward instinctively.

Loki shrugged his shoulders and bit his cheek and Dean shook his head and stepped up to him, grinning. In their heads, they probably thought they were challenging each other but to anyone else watching, all they would be able to see was shameless flirting.

Of what Dean could see of Loki and his fighting style, the God was obviously very righteous and proper when it came to battle and Dean grinned as he realised exactly what would throw him off.

Dean shocked Loki by rugby-tackling him to the ground without a warning. Loki yelped as he was helped unceremoniously to the floor, simultaneously crushed by the weight of the eldest Winchester while the youngest Winchester laughed as he wheezed.

Loki huffed as he landed on his back, looking up to see Dean hovering above him and smirking and decided to play the dirty bastard at his own game.

Loki dug the Winchester in the ribs downright dirtily, causing Dean to gasp and release his hold, giving Loki ample advantage to twist his body weight and flip them both until Loki was able to settle on Dean's waist.

Dean groaned as his back hit the floor and he became consciously aware of Loki's weight settled in his lap as he effectively straddled him and pinned him to the ground.

Dean covered his eyes with one hand. "That was dirty." He said.

When he uncovered his eyes, Loki was smirking down at him. "They don't call me the serpent for nothing." He said, tongue in cheek before he clambered off of him and pulled Dean to his feet.

Dean crossed the room and collapsed onto the other chair next to Sam.

"Yo." Sam whispered, catching his attention. "Did he just make a joke about something he tried to kill himself over?"

Dean smiled, he couldn't help himself, before he reached over and clapped Sam on the back.

"We're fixin' him." He said, just as quietly in case Loki could hear.

…

"Where did Sam go?" Loki asked as he sat down on one of the chairs in the conference room.

Dean walked in laden with ancient tomes piled in his arms, Loki raised an eyebrow as Dean dropped the books on the table with an almighty clatter.

"No love lost there, then?" He asked.

Dean rolled his eyes as he sat down on the seat next to Loki at the conference table and attempted to straighten out some of the old tomes dropped haphazardly before him.

"Sam went out to get food." Dean answered after a moment when Loki's question finally registered. Loki nodded silently in understanding.

"So what's this?" He asked finally.

"The boring part of hunting." Dean told him before checking himself. "Well, the semi-boring part of hunting. The Lore."

Loki nodded. "Oh, yes. Of course."

"Me and Sam have had this shit drilled into our heads since we were young." He scratched his head. "You could probably teach a lot hunters a lot more than we already know."

Dean half-expected Loki to deny it but after a moment of pause, he merely nodded.

Loki pulled a book to himself and opened the cover, realising immediately that the subject matter was something to do with malevolent spirits. He was half-aware of Dean opening another book next to him and reading quietly. Loki tried to take in the advice on salting and burning before him but he couldn't seem to concentrate, but it wasn't because the Lore was as boring as Dean had made out but because he had something else on his mind that he couldn't quite shake off.

"So...who's Cas?"

"Err..." Dean hesitated as he turned and saw Loki's expectant face staring at him. Not only did he not particularly want to talk about Cas, he didn't particularly want to talk to Loki about Cas, especially with the strange mixed feelings there. Not to mention that the only way to describe how he'd met the angel was to divulge that he had been rescued from Hell.

"Cas...err...he's an angel."

"Like the ones who fell?"

"Kind of. I mean, that's not how we met. I've known Cas for years and I..."

Loki regarded Dean, realising that he was describing this friend as a jilted lover would. Loki couldn't help but feel jealous, regardless of the fact he'd never met this angel in his life.

"I don't know." Dean said suddenly, rubbing his face and leaning back in his chair. "He's busy trying to restore everything in Heaven...I get that...I just, I dunno, everything that's happened between me and him...I can't help feeling like I let him down..."

Dean started and looked down to see Loki's pale hand covering his own comfortingly. He looked questioning up at him.

"You can't let anyone down." Loki said simply. "You don't have it in you."

Dean felt like they were too far gone in their relationship for him to remotely mind the current contact between them, whatever it meant was another story but now, having Loki's hand in his own was nothing but comforting and welcome and Dean didn't want it to end. So Dean smiled at him and allowed his hand to be held.

Sam walked across the threshold, ready to announce that the fast food bundled in his arms was slowly giving him third degree burns, but stopped himself when he saw his brother and the trickster God sat at the conference table, grasping each other's hands.

Years of hunting allowed Sam to steal out of the room before he was noticed and he leant against the other side of the door frame. He let his head hit the wall gently and shook his head to himself. Part of him wanted to whack their heads together and tell them to just get together and stop dancing around each other all the time but then a part of him had no comprehension of what was going on between the pair.

…

Loki held the gun aloft and Dean immediately noticed the change in his form. His grip was tighter, his arm straight, back firm and strong as he fired three consecutive shots in the firing range and hit the poor silhouetted man in the abdomen.

"Nice." Dean said, uncovering his ears and clapping Loki on the back.

Loki scowled. "Nice? That's awful. I wasn't even remotely aiming there."

Dean shook his head. "You're improving. Shut up. It's impressive for someone who's never held a gun in their life."

Loki 'hmmm'd as he put the weapon down and folded his arms, pulling the sleeves of his grey sweater with him as he went. He apprehended the pair of them.

"Why is there such a preoccupation with firearms?"

Sam shrugged. "Because it's deadly and it works, I guess."

Loki raised an eyebrow. "Trust me. You've never seen a deadly battle until you've watched people disembowelling their enemies with spears of magic."

Dean's stomach turned but Sam, the nerd, had his curiosity piqued.

"You can cut people with your magic?" He asked.

Loki blinked. "Some times." He said. "In terms of astral projection, I can make the energy do as much as I like with the right energy and concentration. But it's only one aspect of what I'm capable of."

Sam stood a little straighter, interested. "Show us."

Loki hesitated. "What?" He asked.

Dean sent Sam a warning look, aware that Loki wasn't massively proud of his abilities, but Sam was not to be swayed. Like a kid in a candy store.

"Please?" He asked. "I'm curious. You can do magic, that's so cool!"

Dean watched the pleasurable blush rise in Loki's cheeks and a small smile twitch the side of his mouth.

After a moment of apparent deliberation, he threw his hand out and suddenly there was an identical Sam standing next to the original.

"Holy shit!" Dean called out, more from shock than anything else.

"Don't worry." Loki said, smiling shallowly as he caught Sam's bewildered expression. "It's just a hologram."

Cautious, Sam turned his body and recoiled in shock as the image of himself turned, and then recoiled in shock as well.

"Oh my God." Sam said lightly, staring at the mirror image of himself before lifting his hand up, watching as his image matched his movements. "That's creepy."

Loki chuckled before waving his hand effortlessly and the 3-Dimensional duplicate of Sam was gone.

"Woah." Dean said under his breath. Loki could hear the awe in his voice and couldn't help but feel an unexplainable pleasure at it, suddenly, he wanted to show Dean what he could do because he knew it would impress him. In that moment, he was glad he possessed magic.

He clenched his fists, pouring concentration into the movement, aware that what he was trying to achieve he'd only ever achieved at times of heightened emotion.

Slowly, and carefully, the gun Loki had laid down began to tilt and lift in the air. Sam jumped back and Dean watched, motionless, aware of himself as a hunter watching the Supernatural...there was something enthralling about it.

As they watched the gun hover, Sam stepped forward for a closer look, as if ascertaining to himself that this wasn't some kind of elaborate magic trick.

"This...is amazing." He said, before turning to Loki. "You should be revered for this stuff."

"Unfortunately, there's an awful lot of stigma attached to these kinds of abilities where I come from. I'm hoping a future will come where it is accepted but I'm not going to hold my breath."

Dean was caught on how casual Loki sounded talking about this kind of thing, there was less of a clip in his voice when he spoke about the Asgardian disregard for magic. Like he was somehow distanced from them, and from all the ways they could hurt him.

…

The next few weeks passed in much the same way. Sam and Dean taught Loki the ways of being a hunter and Loki was even persuaded to show them a few tricks of the trade of being an Asgardian warrior.

Dean never saw Loki wearing his armour, at all, it was now common to see the trickster in jeans and a t shirt like the rest of them, hair permanently tied in a loose pony tail off of his face. Dean kept telling him that he should get it cut off but was secretly hoping that he wouldn't, he enjoyed the way the ebony strands contrasted as they fell across his alabaster skin; but he would never admit it.

When it came to firearms, the God had only improved with time to the point where Dean had given him a Colt of his own. Loki had been shocked at such a gift but accepted it nonetheless. He'd told Dean a few days later that he felt inexplicably safer with a weapon to hand and that he probably thought that was weird, but Dean had merely shaken his head and told him that he understood.

Of course, no matter how much Dean enjoyed training Loki and just generally having him around, he knew that he couldn't lie to himself forever. And he knew what the lie was: Sam.

He was aware that Sam still had a stupid Angel trapped inside of him, and although Dean knew that Zeke was fixing Sam from the inside out, he still didn't like that his brother was being invaded in such a way, and that Dean was lying to him.

That was partially why Dean was so protective of Sam lately, a why he was so cautious to let Sam do anything on his own.

"Dean, I'm not five any more. I can do things on my own."

"I know." Dean said, circling the kitchen counter and watching apprehensively as Sam stuffed some jeans in a backpack. "I just...why do you want to go alone? I can come with you?"

Sam shook his head. "I think it's best you stay here. You're a baby sitter now. Besides," Sam grinned, "maybe it's time for the pair of you to fix some unresolved feelings."

Dean frowned and scowled at the same time. "Unresolved feelings? Shut the fuck up, man."

Sam laughed as he slung his backpack over his shoulder. "Seriously, though, while the pair of you have some time on your hands, you should take Loki out on a hunt."

"You think he's ready?"

"Yeah, it'll stop you missing me so much while I'm gone. Which you so obviously do."

Dean rolled his eyes. "Go on, get out of here. See you in a couple days."

"Yep." Sam called, already walking to the door.

"Hey, take care of yourself!"

"Yep!" Then he was gone.

Dean watched the door for a moment after he left, feeling that gut-wrenching guilt filling him again before he forced it away. Sam was getting better, that was all that mattered. It had to be.

Dean grasped the back of one of the kitchen chairs and stared down at his hands. He knew he'd go out of his mind if he spent every waking second while Sam was gone worried about him. Sam was right, he needed a distraction.

"Loki!" He called, walking out of the kitchen.

He found the God in the library, brushing his hair out of his face as he reached up to one of the highest shelves and lifted a heavy tome down.

"Bit of light reading?" Dean asked, eyebrow raised.

Loki smiled as he straightened himself out again and deposited the book on a nearby table.

"Sam gone?" He asked.

Dean nodded. "Yeah, he should only be a few days. He's just picking some of Bo...our Uncle's stuff up."

Loki nodded absent-mindedly and Dean cleared his throat.

"Look, um...I think we should go out...on a hunt."

Loki blinked, uncertainty in his expression.

"You think?" He asked.

Dean nodded. "Yeah, sure, you're ready. You had a damn good teacher."

Loki smiled but there was still something akin to nervousness in his eyes.

Dean stepped forward. "Don't worry, you won't be on your own. I'll be with you every step of the way."

After a moment, Loki nodded. He suddenly couldn't think of a more attractive offer.

…

"One of the hardest parts of a hunt;" Dean began as he pulled up the handbrake on the Impala. "Finding jobs. Sometimes they're legit, sometimes they're not. Don't worry if they're not. Happens to everyone."

Loki nodded as he looked around himself, he wasn't exactly sure where they were but they'd been on the road for a few hours.

He wasn't necessarily nervous, he supposed he was kind of excited to be finally doing something, but there was something decidedly quiet and sneaky about hunting, unlike the all-out warfare he was used to.

The pair exited the car and sat down at one of the tables outside of a small cafe, Loki looked quizzically at the hunter.

"Why are we here?" He asked.

Dean responded by pointing with one hand across the road, his other hand busy opening his laptop.

Loki looked behind himself and saw a large grey building with uniform windows staring back at him and frowned. "What is that? A prison?"

Dean stifled a grunt. "It's a community college...so yeah. Hold on..." He clicked a few times on his laptop before turning it to Loki. The trickster, somewhat familiar with the technology, perceived the unformed square boxes of text and read a few lines at random before raising his eyebrows.

"They aren't very literate."

Dean snorted. "What do you expect? It's a blog." He closed his laptop and stood. "Come on, let's check it out."

Loki followed Dean across the road and through the front entrance of the community college. He wanted to point out that there were people swarming everywhere and they didn't have much of an excuse for being there but decided that Dean was the expert. Plus he didn't want to alert the hunter to the fact that he was nervous, he wanted to impress Dean, to show him that he could do this.

"So shit like this is usually bogus," Dean began, as if unaware of all of the teenagers spilling out of lecture rooms and staring at them as they passed. "Some wannabe starts up a blog claiming there's a ghost haunting the football shack at the bottom of the football field. Sounds like bull, I've heard it a million times before. But every now and again, it turns out to be true, so it's always worth checking it out. I did a little digging before we came here and there have been a couple of mysterious deaths in this place over the last two decades, so haunting is sounding a lot more promising, and..."

As Loki listened to Dean drilling off information like it was second nature to him, he became distracted by a group of girls leaning against a wall of lockers, staring directly at them.

The moment he turned to them, they turned away and began giggling into their hands.

Concerned, Loki angled his head to Dean.

"Err..." He said.

Dean blinked and stopped talking. "What?" He asked.

Loki gestured subtly to his side and Dean glanced at the gaggle of giggling girls.

"What are they doing?" Loki asked, sounding worried.

Dean grinned. "They're checking you out, dumbass."

Loki's cheeks tinged red and he stuffed his hands into his jeans pockets and stared at the floor. Dean knew that he shouldn't have laughed but that didn't exactly mean that he could help himself.

…

"You know, if you're trying to be inconspicuous, it's not working." Loki commented dryly as he leant against the wall, blocking Dean from view as he hunkered down to his knees and began picking the lock to the staff lounge.

"Hey, I never said this was a flashy career." Dean pointed out, "you gotta get in and out. Like spies, or rats. I prefer spies."

Loki held back a smile. "I could just blast the door down. Or break the lock, it's only metal."

Dean rolled his eyes as he heard a satisfying click from the door. He pocketed his lock pick and stood. "Yeah, then people will definitely see us."

Dean held the door ajar for Loki and the trickster slipped through, aware of the hunter entering behind him and closing the door gently.

The room was empty, full of couches and coffee tables and filing cabinets. Loki tilted his head as he observed the space.

"Midgard really thrives on bureaucracy." He voiced to no one in particular.

"Well, since you're the muscle of this operation," Dean joked, "would you mind watching the door while I try and find out anything about the old football team."

Loki dutifully opened the door a crack and peered out into the empty corridor while Dean jimmied open the filing cabinet and began flicking through the alphabetised staff records.

"You know you said that a lot of hunters work alone?" Loki asked.

"Yeah." Dean replied absent-mindedly.

"How do they?" Loki asked, confused. "I can't see a scenario in which you can pull this kind of thing off by yourself."

There was a pause before Dean answered.

"I don't really know." Dean replied honestly. "I guess...I dunno, I've never really done this alone before. Its always been me and Sam."

There was another pause.

"Do you miss Thor?"

Loki didn't answer for a moment as he stared into the empty corridor, glad he wasn't looking at the eldest Winchester for once.

"I'm sorry." Dean said suddenly, Loki could still hear him rummaging around in the filing cabinet. "I shouldn't have brought it up, I..."

"No, it's fine." Loki said quietly. "It's just true. Thor is my brother; I've never done this alone, either."

The pair fell silent and Loki could feel the awkwardness in the air.

"Ah ha!" Dean said suddenly, breaking the silence. Loki was grateful as he left the door alone and turned him, Dean had a brown folder open in front of him.

Loki looked over his shoulder and began to read:

"'Brick Rodgers, football coach, deceased'?"

"Says here some student went on a rampage when this place first opened, murdered the first coach."

Loki winced and Dean shut the file.

"That could be something." Dean explained to him. "Sometimes spirits have a brilliant way of sticking around, especially if they're not buried properly and especially if there's some kind of violent death involved."

Loki nodded.

"So." Dean said, staring at him.

Loki hesitated under his green-eyed gaze.

"What?" He asked.

"You're in training." Dean pointed out. "What do you think we should do next?"

"Well, I guess..." Loki said immediately before his brain had a moment to think. "I guess...if it's a possible malevolent spirit...then we need to find out where the remains are. So if Brick Rodgers was murdered, we ask the police?" He tried to make it sound like less of a question but he couldn't help it.

Dean smiled hugely and Loki's nerves dissipated instantly, feeling instantly warmed by Dean's approval.

However, the feeling of warmth dissipated when the pair walked into the nearby police station.

It had been easy enough for Loki to use his magic to manipulate his appearance and he appeared in a formal black suit but Dean, having no such ability, stopped off in a motel bathroom to change.

When he'd walked back out, Loki had momentarily lost his breath.

Dean was wearing a dark suit with a deep navy tie, and an open black pea coat. He looked refined and suave and fucking gorgeous. Not that he didn't generally look gorgeous, and Loki knew he would always prefer his hunter in ripped jeans and a plaid shirt, but _this..._ this was a lovely holiday.

"What?" Dean had said when he'd approached, noticing Loki staring at him.

Loki blinked hard. "Nothing." He said before turning promptly. "Let's go."

And with that, he'd taken off in the direction of the police station and that was how they found themselves stood at the front desk.

"Just follow my lead." Dean said under his breath as the desk officer approached.

"What can I do for you gentlemen?" He asked absent-mindedly.

"Hi there, I'm Agent Johnson, this is my partner Agent Young." He flashed a badge. "We're here investigating a long line of suspicious deaths at St. John's community college down town."

The officer, originally uninterested, suddenly stared at them.

"Suspicious?" He asked. "Some kid died in the football field around a month back, asphyxiation. How's that suspicious?"

"Agent Young...?" Dean prompted, side-lining Loki with a raised eyebrow.

Loki's eyes widened until he realised he was an agent and not a rabbit so he coughed and turned to the expectant officer.

"Erm...there have been a string of asphyxiation-related deaths in the same stretch of field in the same community college in the last twenty years and they all seem to have originated from the murder of Brick Rodgers. There is a possibility...with these kind of murders that there is a copy-cat killer, or perhaps a loved one out for revenge. This is a matter of state importance and we'll need all the information you have on the initial murder of Brick Rodgers."

Loki kept eye contact with the officer but was consciously aware of Dean staring at him and smiling out of the corner of his eye.

The officer seemed to deliberate for a moment before he nodded.

"Okay, gents. Follow me."

As Loki and Dean followed him behind the desk and into the back room, Dean knocked Loki affectionately on the arm.

The pair waited patiently as the officer pulled up the file on his computer.

"Brick Rodgers was murdered by one of the students, Eric Ryland, three flavours of crazy...they detained him at St. John's psychiatric ward after he strangled the coach with his own lanyard. That was just over twenty years ago."

"Is he still there? The boy?" Loki asked.

"Yeah, as far as I can tell."

"What about the body?" Dean asked. "Where did they bury Brick Rodgers?"

The officer read on for a moment and then looked at them. "They didn't bury him, he was cremated." He told them.

Dean closed his eyes and shook his head before quickly opening them and smiling.

"Okay, well, thank you for your time. We'll let you know if there are any developments."

They shook hands quickly and left, on the way back to the Impala, Loki allowed his allusion to fall and was again stood in his skinny jeans and dark shirt. He hoped Dean would keep the suit on a little while longer.

"So if there's no body..." Loki voiced as they got into the Impala. "It might not be the coach?"

"It's not the kid." Dean said. "If he's been locked up in a psych ward this whole time. Besides, you heard the cop. He was strangled to death, and all the other kids died of asphyxiation. His ghost is still there, all right. Probably killing every student it comes across because it thinks they're Eric Ryland."

Loki frowned. "Wouldn't the spirit know?"

Dean shook his head. "At the beginning, maybe. But it's been twenty years. That's what makes 'em crazy. The time. This poor bastard needs to be laid to rest before anyone else gets hurt."

"That's really sad." Loki said quietly.

"It is."

"But if there's no body then what?"

Dean turned the key in the ignition, when the low thrum of the Impala's engine filled the car he spoke.

"Sometimes it's not just remains that tie a spirit to the Earth. Sometimes it's an object, something that meant a lot to the dead guy or something that had a part of them inside of it. You know, like a removed appendix or whatever. But a lot of the time, especially in murder, it's the murder weapon that would keep the spirit here."

"Because it would have the victim's blood on it." Loki realised.

Dean grinned. "You're getting the hang of this."

"That officer said he was strangled with his own lanyard, do you suppose the fabric cut through his neck or something like that?"

Dean nodded. "That's what I think."

"But surely the lanyard would be with the police if it was the murder weapon?"

"That's what I'd think as well but generally the spirits can't stray too for from the object." Dean explained. "So I bet you money it's still in that football shed."

…

The pair made their way back to the community college and waited in the Impala until night time. They spoke of nothing in particular, and nothing of any real importance, and even with the looming hunt in front of them, Dean would have been lying if it wasn't one of the most relaxing evenings he'd had in a long time.

When the janitor turned the light off in the entrance hall, the pair left the Impala and Loki followed Dean's lead, staying low as they approached the mesh wire fence leading into the empty football field.

After a quick scope for security cameras, they scaled the fence and walked the length of the field until they happened upon the shed.

There was something deeply depressing about the small, wooden building stood all alone at the bottom of the field but Loki couldn't pinpoint what it was. Perhaps it was the death, or because it looked so old, or because it looked so abandoned.

Eerie was probably the best word.

"It's eerie." He said out loud.

"I'd be lying if I said this job doesn't have its low points." Dean said sombrely before he stopped walking and put a hand on Loki's chest, halting him. "Look, you don't have to do this if you don't want to." He said.

"No, it's fine." Loki told him, smiling shallowly.

"No, I don't just mean _this._ " Dean explained. "I mean, you don't have to hunt. You're on Earth now, you can do whatever you want. People, when they're around me...I...they get hurt, I let them down."

Loki knew that Dean was seeing Sam in his mind's eye, and possibly even Cas. Plus countless other things he probably blamed himself for. Suddenly the little shack of the dead man didn't seem so depressing any more purely for the fact that Dean was still alive.

He didn't know what to say. He didn't know how to undo a lifetime of loathing Dean had for himself so he did the only thing he could think of doing.

"I promise you," he said earnestly, "that nothing is going to happen to me."

Dean shook his head. "You can't promise that."

"Yes I can." Loki told him. "You're not my supervisor, Dean. You're not my father. You're my friend. I just walked away from everything I've ever known, everything I've ever loved. Trust me when I say that I'm here because I want to be. Being here makes me hate my life just that little bit less."

"Yeah, same." Dean said quietly before coughing loudly. "Um, okay, cool. Shack?"

Loki watched Dean take off quickly in the direction of the shed but stood his own ground.

"If your were born on Asgard..." He called after him. "You'd be a warrior. Like Thor. But I found out, with the avengers, that they call them something different here on Earth. You're..."

A low crackling, like electrical static, distracted them and they turned in time to see the twisted spirit of a bipedal creature flickering into existence by the football shack.

Staring straight at them.

"Crap!" Dean called out as the spirit moved at an inhuman speed towards them.

"Shack!" Dean called out, racing past the spirit in the other direction. "Lanyard!"

The spirit flickered as it stopped, turning from Loki to follow Dean as he bolted towards the shack.

Dean was aware of the spirit beelining for him but refused to turn around, instead he flicked his leg out and his foot connected with the wooden door of the shack. The old wood splintered under his attack and he raced inside. Everything inside was decades old and covered in a sheen of thick cobwebs.

"Oh, crap..." Dean muttered to himself, the likelihood of finding one lanyard in that mess like finding a needle in a giant pile of musty cobwebs.

Loki watched as the spirit followed Dean through the splintered doorway of the shack and panicked.

He pulled his gun from his jeans and fired off one, two, three shots at the spectre. Although all of his bullets hit the ghost, they all whistled right through him, not even gaining his attention, and Loki realised he stood a higher chance of hitting Dean than of hitting the actual spirit itself. He had to do something.

Dean hurt an unearthly groan and took a deep breath before turning and seeing the spirit, its features were twisted into a demented pattern that could only come of spending twenty years stuck in an endless loop of murder. Dean could faintly see the outline of an old-fashioned coaches uniform. He grabbed his shot gun from under his jacket and fired off a rock salt shell at the spirit, it gave a shriek and melted away but Dean knew that in no time at all, it would be back.

Loki heard the gunshot and the shriek and raced into the shack to find Dean stood alone, shot gun pointed at thin air.

"Dean!"

"It'll be back." Dean said quickly. "Find..."

The spirit materialised behind him and Loki called out in shock.

"I hope I'm right." Dean said to himself as he pulled one of the chairs from the cobwebs and slashed in through the spirits' torso, the spirit dissipated for a moment and then reappeared.

"Ah ha!" Dean laughed as he hit the spirit with the chair again, causing it to flicker in and out of view. Buying them time. "Iron, bitches!" Dean laughed.

It was then, really, that Loki had an epiphany.

Even if he was a seasoned hunter, there would be no point in concerning himself with Dean's safety at this point. His physical attacks could do nothing and more importantly, Dean could quite clearly take care of himself.

So instead of rushing to his aid, they needed to work together.

So, leaving Dean to the spirit, Loki began ripping apart the cobwebs on the remaining chairs and table, hyper-aware of the fighting going on behind him. He heard Dean groaning but forced himself to go on.

He dropped to the floor and reached under the table and after about thirty seconds, his hand closed around a strap and he hissed as he pulled the lanyard to himself, whistle still attached. One half was stained red with blood. Dean had been right.

He pulled the salt container out of his pocket and dumped the whole thing on it before setting it alight.

He turned as the spirit screamed, covering his ears and watched as it was engulfed by flames and then it was over. Eerily quiet.

"Okay, someone definitely heard that." Loki said.

Dean nodded quickly at the pair ran from the shack and scaled the fence, Loki operating on adrenaline the whole way.

When they were safely back in the car, all it took was one look at each other and the pair burst into erratic laughter.

"That was the most insane thing I've ever done!" Loki said. "And I've fought rock demons in Anaheim."

"I don't know what that means." Dean said breathlessly. The pair continued to pant heavily until their breathing evened out and then they were staring at each other. Dean was smiling.

"Man," he said, "you saved my ass back there. I'm proud of you, you'll make a damn fine hunter."

Loki couldn't help it, a little ball of pride manifested inside of his chest and it was unfamiliar but it was warm.

"I was freaked out." Loki admitted honestly. "But then you were there and...I felt like we really got it together when we found our rhythm."

_Rhythm._ Dean thought to himself, and he supposed Loki was right. They had rhythm, and that's what made them flow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: If you know the rock alias then we are best friends ;)


	10. Cuts and Bruises

"Ah, man! This hurts like a bitch!"

"That's what happens when you have a bin thrown at you." Loki commented dryly from the passenger seat of the Impala.

"Yeah, 'cause this is the time for sarcasm." Dean rolled his eyes, clutching his bleeding leg and putting the car into drive. "That werewolf could have killed me."

"It could have _bitten_ you." Loki supplied immediately, brushing his raven hair from his face as he reached into the backseat for the first aid kit he'd stashed on the floor of the car. "You should consider yourself lucky all it did was knock a metal skip into your legs."

"See that _should_ have been sarcasm. That's something human we have to work on." Dean muttered, turning the wheel, and speeding dangerously into a side street.

"I don't need to work on anything," Loki said lightly. "We have sarcasm on Asgard. You're just tetchy because your leg hurts. Or your pride is injured more. Pull over."

Dean grumbled and pulled over, the side street was dimly lit and quiet, which was mildly disconcerting when there was a werewolf somewhere behind you.

"Pull your jeans up." Loki said, unbuckling his seat belt and turning to Dean in his seat.

"Please, Loki, now is not the time or the place for flirting." Dean grinned, finding humour in dire situations as he always did, hiking his leg onto the seat, wincing as he did so, and inching his jean leg up to reveal a torn gash on his shin.

Loki didn't even blink. "This is nothing. I've seen far worse on the battlefield." He made quick work of dabbing the cut with antiseptic before wrapping a bandage his leg, securing it with tape.

"Thanks." Dean said quietly, pulling his jean leg back down and killing the engine.

"It's no problem." Loki said, throwing the first aid kit to the back seat and gathering his hair up, tying it quickly off of his face. "Do you have any silver in the trunk?"

Dean was staring at him.

"What?" Loki asked, hands immediately flying back to his scruffy pony tail. "Is it bad?"

"No, it's not that." Dean said, and Loki let his raven hair fall over his shoulder. "It's just that, when you hunt, when you fight, you're like a totally different person."

"It's the only way to survive the battlefield." Loki said, smiling at the compliment nonetheless.

"I just thought becoming a hunter would be difficult for you but…you're amazing."

Loki's cheeks went red. "Shut up." He muttered, but there was pleasure in his voice.

The pair were brought out of their unrealised flirting by a heavy grunt from the distance and their eyes met.

"Silver in the trunk." Dean said and then they both bolted from the car. "Or if you can't get close enough, just blow its head off." Dean admitted, popping the trunk and handing Loki a small silver knife that the trickster tucked into the waistband of his dark jeans. "I mean, decapitation kills most…"

"I'll get close enough." Loki assured him, something close to enjoyment on his face. They both turned when they heard a growl and the werewolf was on all fours at the other end of the road, staring at them with bottomless black eyes, fur covering its hulking body, its baying breath causing swirls of mist to erupt in the night air.

"It's beautiful." Loki said without a hint of fear in his voice.

Dean briefly turned from the horrific sight in front of him and fixed Loki with a bizarre stare. "You're such a weird guy." Was all he said.

Loki laughed and suddenly he was gone, quick as lightening he'd taken off down the street. Dean watched in shock for a split second before he joined him, a few paces behind, pulling his colt from his jacket and holding it aloft.

The werewolf lunged for Loki and Dean watched as the frost giant ducked, slashing the silver knife out and taking out the tendon in the werewolf's front paw in one swoop. The wolf screeched in pain and lunged again, falling awkwardly on its injured paw and Loki sent an elbow into its throat, paralysing it for a mere second before the knife was plunged into its neck.

Dean took full advantage of the shock and mental deterioration of the wolf. Loki took a few large strides back, almost immediately, as if completely aware of what Dean was going to do before he'd even decided to do it.

Dean fired off three shots in complete succession, one hit the wolf in the back, one in the throat and one in the side of its skull, caving it in.

The wolf paused, howled, whimpered, and then fell, its huge mass crashing to the ground and causing the street lights to rattle and the cars to wobble. The two hunters, however, remained motionless.

They stood silent and still for a long time until Loki spoke.

"There was a person in there." He said.

"There's a person in every monster." Dean admitted, tempted to put a comforting hand on his back but deciding against it. "We do what we have to do."

Loki nodded.

…

After burning the body of the wolf the pair again sat in the Impala and Dean drove them back to the bunker. They talked naturally of nothing important, the weather, the movie they'd watched last night…but it wasn't small talk, it was just innocent conversation. These were the moments Dean liked best, when he could get lost in time with Loki, forget everything else that was troubling him, everything else would fall away and it would be just the two of them, like they were all that mattered.

Sam had ordered food in, enough for three, and Dean gave him a grateful hug when they re-entered the bunker.

"Thank God, I'm starving." He said, kicking off his boots and collapsing at the conference table and pulling a burger towards him.

"He's just feeling sorry for himself." Loki told Sam. "He endured the smallest of minor injuries and…"

"Hey!" Dean said through a mouth full of food as Sam laughed in earnest.

"So how did the hunt go?" Sam asked eventually as Loki sat down and began eating with the same level of enthusiasm as Dean, although with the rather preferable choice to eat with his mouth closed.

"Fine." Loki said. "We tracked the werewolf all night, it treated your brother as a chew toy…"

"Loki thought it was cute."

"I didn't say cute, I said…"

Sam rolled his eyes and mentally tuned out. Pretending not to notice that Loki and Dean spent their lives dancing around each other, and wading through the treacle of sexual tension between them, was becoming second nature to him now. But he couldn't help feeling ever so slightly left out.

"I could have helped you out on the hunt." He said quickly, slicing through their playful bickering with a knife.

Dean sobered immediately. "Sammy, there's nothing I'd like better than for you to be back on the job, I miss you, man. But you've been down since the trials, okay, no one's taken that big of a hit before. You need to heal."

"I have been healing!" Sam whined like a petulant child. Loki hid his grin behind his hand. "Come on, dude, I've been holed up and healing just like you said, for ages now, I'm fine."

Dean looked at Sam's earnest, almost pleading face for a moment before he chuckled.

"Yeah, I know, man. It's awesome."

…

Dean couldn't help accidentally ruminating on what Sam had said over the next few days. He began to subtly observe Sam's movements. The way he walked, the way he talked, hell, even the way he made coffee, and Dean could barely see a glimpse of the broken mess he'd been in the weeks after the trials.

He genuinely seemed healthier, brighter…like he had healed.

Dean ran into Loki in the lower levels of the bunker, he was on his back, sleeves rolled up, pulling apart the pieces of an old Camaro Dean had stashed down here. Loki had been somewhat fascinated with cars ever since he'd come to Earth and had asked Dean if he could examine the mechanics of the machine, saying that magic was also like a machine, and he could learn how everything worked just from a closer look.

Dean was a little perplexed that Loki cared more for the internal mechanisms of a car than actually learning how to drive, but it was a cert that Loki was a little odd and Dean wouldn't have him any other way. And that's how he found him, shirt sleeves hiked up, oil staining his alabaster hands, furrowed look on his face. Loki looked so incomprehensibly different from the warrior Dean had first met it was like he hadn't existed at all. Dean even found himself missing him from time to time.

"Hey." He said upon entering the room. "How you getting on?"

Loki sat up upon noticing him, pushing himself up from the ground into a standing position and leaving oil handprints on the floor, the naturally escaping strands of his tied back hair fell in front of his face and he was forced to push them aside with his wrist lest he stain the rest of his skin.

"Yes, fine. Messy."

"The joy of mechanics." Dean said, patting his thighs uncomfortably. "Um, listen…I was looking for you, actually."

Loki looked expectantly back at him.

"Do you think Sam is okay?" He blurted out.

"What do you mean?"

"I…well…you're like, way more observant than me and I was just wondering if you thought he seemed…better…from when he was sick."

Loki remembered something strange was going on with Sam, he had briefly wondered that he might have been an internal shapechanger but Dean made it quite clear that whatever was wrong with him was an illness, although he had said little else. Loki had never pressed the subject, it was private between brothers, but he had been worried about Sam, and he would be lying if he said he hadn't seen an improvement in the youngest Winchester over the last couple of weeks.

"I think he's well, yes." Loki assured the eldest Winchester. "I wouldn't worry about him now. Whatever ailed him before seems to have passed."

"Yeah…" Dean tailed, looking more worried than he should have at such good news.

"Is everything okay?" Loki asked, brow furrowed.

Dean looked straight at him, eyes wide as if snapping out of a trance and nodded quickly. "Yeah, sure, of course, thanks, I…there's something I need to do."

"Okay." Loki said lightly, as if going out of his way to agree with Dean. "I'll see you later?"

"Yeah, for sure. Have fun."

With that, he turned and bolted back up the stairs, leaving a bemused Loki behind him. Loki shook his head as he turned back to the half-dismantled car and knelt back down again. He wasn't worried about Dean, he had no reason to be, on top of being strong and courageous and endearing…Dean was just really fucking odd. Loki had never questioned it before.

Besides, he figured if anything was bothering Dean, he'd tell him eventually, he always did.

Upstairs, Dean stole into the nearest bathroom, making sure he was alone, and pulled his phone from his pocket. As it rang on, he felt a bit bizarre, dirty even, about calling someone from inside a bathroom, still he supposed it was a perk that he wasn't actually sat on the toilet. He had to draw the line there.

" _Squirrel, this better be good. I'm very busy and very mad that your frost giant tried to kill me."_

"Will you let that go?" Dean asked irritably, voice low.

Dean could hear Crowley's frown in his pause. _"Why are you whispering?"_

"Because…I need your help."

" _Excellent. And what do I get out of it?"_

"Oh, I don't know, Odin doesn't find out where you are."

There was another pause.

" _All right, Winchester. I'll help you, under the strict understanding that you give me your word that that is the last time you hold that over my head."_

"Deal." Said Dean quickly.

" _I don't believe you."_

"Yeah, well, I'm desperate. You can trust me, Crowley, I'm not a demon. No more Odin threats, I give you my word."

Crowley sighed. _"What do you need?"_

"I need you to meet me." Dean said. "And bring your Angel blade. We're smoking Ezekiel out."

…

Dean still didn't quite know why he thought Ezekiel wouldn't go kindly, but for some reason he just felt better knowing he had back up. Or course, Crowley wasn't exactly one to be trusted but at least he already knew what was going on with Sam and Ezekiel, and Dean wanted to keep it that way. No one else knew, Sam was never going to know…and neither was Loki.

Dean knew that if they ever found out, he'd lose the pair of them. Loki seemed to understand doing bad things for good reasons better than anyone Dean had ever known, but to betray a brother…Dean just didn't think Loki could forgive that.

Hence why he was so closed off from him when they spoke that night.

"Listen, Loki…I don't suppose you mind being in the bunker by yourself tonight?" Dean asked, interrupting the trickster as he was flicking through TV channels. Loki still didn't necessarily understand television, mainly for the bizarrely broad stroke of it, like there was one show about a gang of forensic scientists who solved grisly murders and there was one about a talking sponge who lived in a piece of fruit…Loki quietly decided that humans were insane, but he quite enjoyed the news, and that was what he looked up from when Dean spoke to him.

Again, the hunter had that pre-occupied look on his face from that morning and Loki did his best to hide his frown.

"Sure. Is everything okay?"

"Yeah, everything's fine, I just thought, I listened to what you said about Sam and everything and I thought I would surprise him, take him out on a hunt."

Loki's face broke out into a smile. "That's brilliant. He'll love that. I'm glad you're doing this."

"So am I." Dean admitted honestly.

"If you get into trouble, you know how to reach me."

Dean smiled despite himself. "Yes, mom." He said.

Loki rolled his eyes and turned his attention back to the television. "See you later. Have fun."

As Dean walked out of the room, he had a random urge to shout back 'love you' as one would casually do to a family member or a spouse but he checked himself immediately, having no idea where that had come from. He supposed he just felt a bit weird doing something this major alone, ever since they'd been joined by their new uncouth family member, Dean had just gotten used to doing things with Loki by his side, and he felt rather uncomfortable without him there.

He shook his head to himself and internally called himself an idiot.

"Yeah, bye." He called back innocently.

…

"Dude, I am so excited." Sam said, head practically out of the window of the Impala like a puppy.

"It's just a hunt, man." Dean muttered.

"All right, grumpy pants." Sam said. "It feels like an ice age since you let me out on a hunt, I'm so happy you're letting me do this."

"Yeah, Loki said that." Dean said.

"Good, you can't wriggle out of this one, we all agree I'm 100% healed, me and your boyfriend."

"My WHAT?" Dean said, louder than he had intended.

Sam shook his head. "Yeah, you're right, two miracles in one night is pushing it."

"Shut up, man."

"So where are we going?"

"It's about 50 miles east…" Dean said. "Irregular demon activity, I've called Crowley."

Sam raised an eyebrow. "How do you get Crowley to do anything for you?"

Dean grinned then. "Odin's got dirt on him."

"For what?"

"No idea." Dean answered. "Must be bad though, just mention Odin's name and he jumps."

Sam frowned. "But…how are we supposed to get hold of Odin? Loki isn't talking to them anymore."

"Yeah, well, Crowley doesn't need to know that. Besides, Loki can get in touch with Asgard or any of the other nine realms whenever he wants to."

"Does he want to?"

"What do you mean?"

"Has he said anything about his Mom? Or his brother?"

Dean shook his head. "Not a word, actually."

"Ah, he'll be all right. I feel like we're doing a good deed or something, taking in a stray."

"You noticed we do that a lot?"

Sam laughed at that, and the rest of the drive passed in relative good humour, Dean almost forgot about what they were about to do, until he pulled into the motel car park and saw Crowley waiting outside the lobby, crouched down and apparently fighting with a vending machine.

"What the hell is he doing?" Sam asked, cocking his head to the side.

"No idea." Dean admitted as the pair of them got out of the car. "Crowley! What's up?"

"When I pay for chocolate, I expect to get it." Crowley admitted in his crisp British accent, getting to his feet and patting down his black coat. "I'm the King of Hell and candy should obey me."

Dean decided to bypass that comment and sent a look in the demon's direction.

"Anyway…" Crowley continued. "I've tied the demons up, they're in the room. I need you to interrogate them and find out what they know."

"Why us?" Sam asked, frowning. "But Dean said…this doesn't add up."

"Sam…" Dean tried.

"Oh well, I tried." Crowley said, producing an Angel blade from his sleeve, it glinted under the flickering of the breaking L.E.D motel sign.

"Why have you got…?" But Sam couldn't even finish his sentence before his eyes flashed blue and his entire expression hardened. "Dean, what are you doing?" Ezekiel asked angrily.

"Really, Crowley? In the parking lot?" Dean muttered.

"You wanted this done quickly." Crowley bickered back.

"Do what?" Ezekiel asked and Dean turned back to him, he took a deep breath.

"Look, Zeke, I'm not trying to threaten you, I…look, the deal was that you stayed in Sam until he healed."

"And until I was healed, Dean. The deal was that I needed a vessel. If you want me to leave Sam, you need to find someone else capable of sustaining me."

Dean shook his head. "I can't do that."

"I've helped you, Dean. And this is how you repay me?"

"Zeke, I'm sorry. There has to be another way to do this…"

Crowley rolled his eyes. "Okay, I'm bored with this now." He brandished the Angel blade in Zeke's face. "Get out of the moose now or I'll use this."

Ezekiel squinted and fixed his gaze on the demon. "You think I'm going to fall for that? You'd never do that, it would kill Sam."

Crowley chuckled to himself as he looked down at his Angel blade, he twiddled it in the air with practised ease like a band member with a baton, until he was clasping the tip in his palm and lashed out, the heavy handle hitting Dean on the side of the skull with a sickening crack. Dean couldn't even register what had happened until he'd crumpled, unconscious, on the parking lot floor.

Ezekiel blinked once.

"You think I give a damn about what this irritating Winchester wants?" Crowley said. "I just care about there being one less Angel to deal with. _'Zeke'_."

Crowley fixed him with such a stare that the Angel thought just for a moment that this demon might know the truth about him, which was scarier than any Angel blade being pointed at him.

Crowley lunged with the blade, more for show than for anything else, and Ezekiel flinched and put his hand up.

"Stop!" He said, grimacing. "This isn't over."

There was a bright light, blinding Crowley, before it dissipated again and the darkness was equally as distressing to his eyes.

The scared eyes of Sam Winchester found Crowley's.

"What…?" He tried before he fell unconscious to floor beside his brother.

Crowley looked down at both of them, completely unmoving, and sighed.

He looked to the heavens. "What did I do to deserve this?" He frowned. "Oh, right."

…

The first sensation Dean got when he came to was a feeling of motion, and the immediate second was a searing pain in his head.

"Ah!" He groaned, hand flying to his head. When he retracted his hand, there was red staining his digits.

He suddenly remembered what happened and fear filled him.

"Sam…!"

"Calm down, he's fine." Came a bored voice next to him, Dean turned his head sharply – instantly regretting it when a flash of pain exploded in his head – and saw Crowley sat in the driver's seat, the driver's seat of his Impala, and by the looks of things, they were cruising down the road at 60 mph. "He's in the back seat."

Dean turned his head, a bit slower this time, and saw Sam slumped across the back seat, looking rather peaceful.

"The Angel is gone." Crowley informed him. "He scarpered as soon as he saw the blade."

Dean ruminated on that for a few moments before he put two and two together and he sighed.

"So, if Zeke didn't leave, would you have stabbed Sam?"

Crowley smirked. "What, an incur Squirrel's wrath? I'll let you figure that one out. I did what you wanted me to do."

"I don't know why I always trust you." Dean muttered darkly, more to himself than to Crowley.

"Ding, ding, because you don't have any other choice." Crowley chipped in unhelpfully. "And besides, you're the last person allowed to give me shtick on being trustworthy after what you've done to Sam. Don't worry, he's out cold, he can't hear me."

Dean fell silent and closed his eyes. "Just pull over. I want to get Sam home."

"Certainly." Crowley said, thumbing the turn signal. "You're on a strict schedule. Secrets to keep and Frost Giant's to please, your life has become ever so complicated."

…

With the frankly gargantuan dead weight of his sasquatch brother on his shoulders, Dean didn't even bother to try and shimmy the door to the Bunker open so instead he used the hand that wasn't supporting Sam's unconscious arm around his shoulder to bang on the door.

Loki appeared a few moments later, looking tired, wearing a baggy shirt over boxers, hair messy, but his expression cleared the minute he saw them. Namely, Sam unconscious and Dean barely conscious with blood crusted on the side of his head.

"Oh, my word. What happened?"

"Help me get him in, would you?" Dean asked, and Loki was at his side in a second. The God's superior strength took nearly all of Sam's body weight from Dean and the eldest Winchester almost collapsed from the sudden lack of weight.

Together, the pair manhandled Sam to his bedroom, Dean took over and laid his younger brother down, quickly pulling his shoes off and laying his quilt over him, he glanced at Sam's face. Despite the fact that Sam was unconscious, he didn't seem particularly injured, he had colour in his face, he almost looked – dare Dean say it – healthy.

"Dean." Dean turned, seeing Loki still stood in Sam's doorway, leant against the frame. He was a glorious sight, black boxers clashing with alabaster skin, baggy shirt hanging off his lithe frame…he looked like a truck stop hook up. Dean felt guilty simultaneously for being aroused while his brother lay unconscious next to him and by degrading his friend in such a way, but Loki soon broke his reverie with the look of intense worry that happened across his face.

And then Loki did something that Dean…that Dean loved him for. He didn't ask what happened.

He didn't even go there, he just beckoned Dean towards him and said softly: 'Come with me, I'll get something for your head."

Dean was tempted to brush it off, to stay by Sam's side until he was awake and insist that everything was okay but…Loki respecting his privacy like that, Loki somehow understanding exactly what was happening, and exactly what Dean needed even when Dean himself didn't know, he felt compelled to honour any wish Loki made to him.

The Winchester followed the Asgardian out of the room, shutting Sam's door quietly behind him, and soon enough Dean found himself sat on the edge of the conference table with Loki perched on one of the chairs, staring up at him and gently dabbing the bleeding cut on his head.

"You'll probably need some butterfly stitches." Loki told him. "I can do that here. Take these painkillers."

Dean didn't argue, he just took them, allowing Loki to carefully apply stitches to the sore area, not bothering to ask how he knew how to do it.

"You know," Loki began, smiling shallowing as his mind was cast back to their recent werewolf hunt, "I spend half my life putting you back together."

Again, Dean said nothing. He was being quiet, uncommonly quiet. Loki's smile fell.

"Is everything okay?" He asked, but Dean was too preoccupied with lying to him, with lying to Sam, wondering where the hell Zeke had gone and how it would take nothing for the Angel to return in a new vessel and tell Sam everything.

"Dean."

Dean blinked back to the present again and became aware of the ice blue eyes staring worriedly up at him.

"Sorry." He said. "I…it's right to do bad things for good reasons, right?"

Loki's mind was immediately brought back to the moment he'd slaughtered Laufey, all for Odin's approval and to protect Asgard, before he shook the memory, and all thoughts of Asgard, off and simply nodded at Dean.

"Of course, it is. It keeps the realms constant. If there weren't people like us, your Earth would fall off its axis."

"Yeah." Dean replied emotionlessly.

"So, what's brought this on, then?"

And in that moment, Dean Winchester gave up. It was the fact that Loki _didn't_ want to know, that was why Dean wanted to tell him. He wanted to tell him everything. He wanted to have one pair of eyes that weren't going to judge him for what he had done.

"Loki, when Sam was sick, I let…"

"Dean, Sam is fine." Loki interrupted immediately, cutting the Winchester off. "You make sure of that."

Dean shook his head. "No, you don't understand. I did a bad thing, when I thought Sam was dying, I made a bad decision and, I know what I'm about to tell you will make you think I'm a bad person but…"

"You're not a bad person, Dean. You're a hero."

Dean stalled.

"What?" He finally got out.

Loki smiled almost bashfully up at him. "That's what I've been trying to tell you, for a while now. It's what I meant to say that night at the haunted football shack, I think you're a hero."

Dean was stunned. He was more than stunned, he was…stupefied.

"I'm no hero."

"Hey."

They both looked over at the groggy voice and saw Sam entering the room, rubbing his eyes and looking surprisingly well rested.

"Hey." Dean replied, voice full of energy as if his conversation with Loki hadn't taken place at all.

"What the hell happened?" Sam asked.

"One of the demons jumped us both at the motel." Dean replied quickly, as if he'd rehearsed it. "Crowley sorted them out and took us home."

"Crowley?" Sam asked sceptically.

"Yeah, I know. Weird, right?"

Sam ran a hand through his hair and sighed. "Man, I'm sorry. I thought I was ready for the hunt but I let you down."

"No, you didn't." Dean said firmly. "You're fighting fit, just like you said. That demon got us both, look, my head's in half."

"Are you okay?" Sam asked, looking worried.

Dean brushed himself off as if he meant nothing. "Yeah, of course, I'm fine. Always am. Are _you_ okay, though? Seriously, man, how are you?"

"I'm fine, actually. I'm great. Better than I've felt in ages, like I've got way more head space now for some reason."

"Good, good…" Dean said, but he didn't look as cheerful as he sounded, something that didn't go unnoticed by the trickster next to him.

"I'm starving, is anyone else starving?" Sam asked suddenly. "I think I'm going to make food."

"Sure thing." Dean smiled, and Sam was out of the door.

Before Dean could even start his pity party, however, Loki had scooted his chair substantially nearer to where Dean sat perched on the edge of the table, elevating him just a few inches higher than him, until the God was practically between Dean's legs.

Dean was shocked at their sudden proximity but he was more shocked by the steely, almost angry, look on Loki's face.

"Listen to me, Winchester, because I'm not going to say this again. I don't know what you did to Sam, I don't want to know. But your brother was dying, whatever you did to save his life was the right thing to do. I would have done the same for Thor."

The flash of pain across Loki's strong eyes was unmistakable.

"And Sam would have done the same for you." Loki continued. "One of these days, you're going to have figure out that you're the good guy. Bad guys kill people, good guys save people and you've saved him, you've saved me."

"I never wanted to be a hero." Dean said. "I just want to do right by the pair of you. You're my family."

"Yes, we are. And that's never going to change."

And he was right. Whether Dean and Loki were friends, brothers or even lovers, they were together. And that was all that would ever matter.


	11. Secrets and Lies

ONE YEAR LATER

Twelve months had passed since Ezekiel had been ejected from Sam Winchester, and since the Angels had been returned to Heaven and Metatron had safely been locked up in Asgardian prison. According to Castiel, there was still no sign of God, and the Angel was increasingly busy running things upstairs. Shield had been quiet, as well, in fact, life for the three unlikely hunters had been normal – well, as normal as a hunter's life could be, anyway. Sam and Dean continued to hunt; Dean and Loki continued acting like a pair of love-sick puppies that bolted from opportunity every time a chance came up for them to express their true feelings; all was well.

Although Loki couldn't help but notice that over the last few days, the Winchester brothers had been nothing short of moody. It wasn't until he was walking down a city high street – visiting a shopkeeper who may or may not have sold a cursed replica Grimoire – and he happened to walk by a greetings card shop with a giant, baby pink poster in the window that read 'THIS WEEKEND – HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!'

"Mother's Day." Loki muttered to himself, it was obvious now. Any mention of the Winchester's late mother, Mary, and the pair sank into a deep depression – justifiably so – since her murder had deprived them of the family they'd always wanted. But it wasn't long before Loki's mind drifted from their mother and onto his own. It had been over a year since he'd been home – or what used to be home – he still believed this had all been for the best, and he was happy; happier than he'd ever been, but whenever his old life crossed his mind, he felt an indescribable pain and misery, and guilt. He hated thinking of his mother because he missed her, but also because he was terrified that, if he ever did return, she wouldn't want him back.

"Hey." He said rather dully as the Bunker door slammed shut behind him.

"Hey." Dean greeted in reply, decidedly cheerier. Loki found him in the conference room, feet propped up on the table, flicking absentmindedly through the stack of papers in his hands.

Dean hadn't changed much since the previous year, the only noticeable difference was that he'd grown a little scruff over the past couple of months. He put it down to being busy and overworked but the reality of the situation was that Loki had mentioned that he liked it all of one time and Dean didn't have the heart to shave it off.

Loki hadn't changed that much, either. He still tended to wear his hair off of his face, and he tended to favour black clothes above others, but he occasionally stretched to greys and whites. Today, he wore a loose-fitting bottle-green shirt over a pair of black jeans, and Dean smiled as he watched him walk in, reminded of an armoured warrior he once knew.

"Was the Grimoire cursed?" Dean asked.

"No." Loki admitted glumly, dumping his shoulder bag unceremoniously on the table and walking in the direction of the kitchen. "It was a replica. Do you want coffee?"

"Woah, hold up." Dean called out, standing up. Loki stilled and turned to him.

"What's up with you, grumpy guts?" Dean asked.

"Nothing." Loki said unconvincingly.

Dean folded his arms and fixed him with a stare. "Come on, I can read you like a book. What's bothering you?"

Loki sighed. "Same thing that's bothering you."

Dean frowned. "What's been bothering me?"

"The non-stop commercialisation of a certain holiday event…Come on, I can read you like a book, too."

Dean's eyes suddenly met the floor as it occurred to him. "Okay, fine." He sighed. "I admit I get a little grumpy when people's happy family's get shoved in my face…wait, the same thing?" The penny dropped and Dean's eyes locked with Loki. "Of course, you miss your mom, too."

"I don't want to talk about it." Loki said quickly. "I'll make coffee."

And he was out of the room before Dean could say another word.

…

It was true that Dean had spent a lot of time recently thinking about his mother, he always did around this time of year, but he had unexpectedly started thinking of Loki's mother as well.

He didn't know a lot about Frigga, only what Loki had told him, which wasn't much, just that she had taught him magic and basically raised and nurtured him while Odin had been busy preparing Thor for the Asgardian throne. Of all the people Loki had left behind, it was obvious that it was Thor and Frigga that he missed the most, but he never spoke about either of them.

But while Dean could not rectify his own situation, he could still help Loki.

And that was why he sat Loki down two days later under the pretence of a 'chat'.

"I always get worried when you want to chat." Loki admitted, looking genuinely sceptical as he perched on the end of Dean's bed, his gaze briefly lifted to the weapon Dean had fashioned in Purgatory hanging above his bed. "What's blown up?"

Dean laughed. "Nothing, thankfully. No, um, I was thinking…have you thought about going back to Asgard?"

"What?"

"Not permanently, obviously. Just, like, for a visit. To see your mom, I know you've been thinking about her."

There was a pause.

"What's brought this on?" Loki asked slowly.

"You were right the other day." Dean admitted. "Me and Sam do get moody around Mother's Day, unintentionally, it got me thinking…there's nothing stopping you visiting Frigga if you wanted to."

Loki was silent for a long moment.

"I can't." He said eventually. "I can't go back. Besides, I'm happy here."

"I know." Dean assured him quickly, briefly wondering why he was digging himself into a deep hole. "But you miss her, you can't cut her out forever. I wish I could see my mom that easily."

Loki's eyes snapped up to his.

"That came out wrong." Dean said immediately.

Loki, however, had the closest thing to anger in his eyes that Dean had ever seen.

"Will you just butt out?" The God asked rhetorically, sounding irritated. "It's not the same."

"Yeah, I know." Dean said. "That was harsh, I'm sorry, I know it's not easy to go back."

Loki sighed and shook his head, suddenly becoming very interested in the loose threads on the corner of Dean's quilt. "No, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have snapped. I'm just defensive. If the truth be told, I'm completely terrified of going back. Like it's going to bring everything back again."

"You made the right decision the first time, it was the right thing to do. You have more control over your life and your choices than you did before, I think you'd be just fine. But hey, I've always had faith in you." Dean was grinning cheekily at him now and Loki wanted to punch him in face for being so irritatingly attractive.

"Besides- "Dean continued. "You're a part of our family now, whether you like it or not."

Loki smiled shyly across the bed at him. "No one's ever cared for me as much as you. It's mildly disconcerting." He'd leant in closer to Dean to say that, lowering his voice slightly and Dean couldn't help but shift closer to him on the bed, playing along.

"You know," he said equally as quietly with a touch of humour in his voice. "You might be a badass hunter now, but I still see that weirdly dressed guy I found in a parking lot."

Loki sobered slightly as the memory returned to him, obviously taking him back to that night and the moments that had preceded it.

Dean smiled shallowly. "You told me that night that you were heartless. But it's not true, it never has been.

The pair suddenly became aware of how close they'd unconsciously become. Loki could smell Dean's familiar musk – coffee and old book pages, mixed with the slightly sweet scent of his shower gel and that unmistakable smell of human body heat, not smells naturally associated with seduction, but Loki felt pretty damn turned on right now.

"Do you remember something else about the night we met?" Loki asked boldly. "When we shook hands."

"I remember." Dean said, voice low and ragged as if he didn't have enough air in his lungs to speak. He held his breath as he watched Loki inch his head across the bed and thread is fingers with Dean. Dean was forever perplexed by Loki's slightly cool skin but he'd never change the feel of it against his own.

"You're bold today." Dean said, voice amused but heavy.

Loki merely shrugged. "I'm in a strange mood today."

Dean laughed, light and happy, feeling that same spark of electrical energy he'd felt that first night, but it was accompanied now by a familiarity, a bond of trust and faith between two people. Dean didn't act on his urges the first night because that's all they'd been, urges, but now it was  _feelings,_ genuine feelings, and he could act now. He could. So that's what he did.

The noise that escaped Loki when Dean pressed his lips to his for the first time was almost fearful. Like that fear you experience when you finally get what you want, and you're terrified of what it will mean; what you'll risk losing, what will happen if this thing is taken away.

Loki's hand found Dean's neck almost immediately, instinctively pulling him closer. The moving of Dean's mouth against Loki's, the softness of his lips, the feel of his strong hands as they settled on his waist…Loki was in Heaven.

He wanted, he  _needed_ the kiss to deepen, to last forever, he melted against Dean, lips going lax as he attempted to open Dean's mouth with his own. Dean let out a slight whimper as he felt the hot, wet, addictive press of Loki's tongue against his own for the very first time.

The kiss was both passionate and extremely gentle at the same time, something they were experiencing both at the first time and for the millionth time, from another life perhaps; the reconnection of atoms split since the birth of the universe, finding each other again. Not finding home within one another, exactly, rather creating a new home, one that was unequivocally warm and safe, and theirs.

Dean pulled back, too scared to speak, and his fearful eyes met Loki's confused ones for the briefest of seconds before he was gone, whisking out of the room at lightning speed.

"Dean!" Loki called, but only silence greeted him in return. It took Loki a moment to truly appreciate, sitting alone on Dean's bed, that he was shaking.

He lifted his hand before his eyes and saw it moving imperceptibly; out of his control.

Loki immediately felt like he'd done something wrong, he felt guilt as well as a sense of profound apology for whatever sin he must have committed. He felt himself slipping immediately back into the same wretched, diseased mindset he'd occupied every day of his life in Asgard. Like sense-memory. All it took was one rejection, and it reminded him of every time he'd never been good enough before.

Loki shook his head, forcing his clouded mind to clear, and centred himself on Midgard, on  _Earth,_ and on the empty space on the bed in front of him where Dean's warmth had occupied.

Now cold.

…

ONE YEAR AGO

Zeke was forced to return to his original vessel, he didn't have much of choice when he was expelled from Sam Winchester. He believed that Dean wouldn't have hurt him, but with Dean lying unconscious on the floor and that wretched demon Crowley, Crowley, who had called him 'Zeke' with such sarcasm that he almost believed that Crowley knew the truth of his identity.

But how could he know? Then again, he didn't care to know the ways of the demons.

So, with Crowley threatening him with the angel blade, Zeke had had no choice but to flee, still injured, still banished from Heaven. Not because the angels had fell, obviously the Winchesters had fixed it, but because of who he was and what he had done. So, he'd had no choice but to return to the bartender and hide inside of him until he was healed and had figured out what the hell he was supposed to do next. No pun intended.

He'd felt guilty, the bartender seemed to just be getting his life back on track before Zeke had returned to him, but the guilt was easily forgotten because Zeke considered his needs above the bartender's. He just wished that Dean Winchester could have seen that, too.

Zeke sat in his old vessel, feeling strangely at home but missing Sam Winchester dearly. He supposed at least he had been able to fully heal the hunter before he'd been ejected, unceremoniously, from the deal they had made.

_Ezekiel had died in the fall._ He'd learnt that much from being attacked by Bartholomew and his fellow angels, which meant that Ezekiel's life was waiting there, to be taken over.

He shook his head immediately, he couldn't even entertain the possibility of returning to Heaven and trying to be an angel again, people would know who he was  _immediately._ Although…no one had seen Gadreel in millennia, maybe, just maybe, he might get away with it.

After hours of talking himself in and out of it, Zeke decided he had nothing else to lose and was going to take the chance. He stood, closed his eyes and breathed out slowly. When he opened them, he was in Heaven.

PRESENT DAY

A year had passed since Zeke had been ejected from Sam and since he'd made the decision to return to Heaven with his brothers and sisters and resume Ezekiel's life for him. And it had worked.

His brothers and sisters had welcomed Ezekiel back with open arms, grateful that he had survived the fall contrary to what they had heard. He'd resumed Ezekiel's role in Heaven and had gotten on with his life, he hadn't been back to Earth since. People still searched for Gadreel but no one had figured out that it was the man they entrusted, and hopefully, they never would.

One day, Zeke was walking through one of Heaven's buildings, ready to report to his boss, Naomi, about his days' work, but paused outside of the door when he heard her in rather heated conversation with two other angels, a girl, and a guy that Zeke didn't know.

Instead of leaving to give them some privacy, Zeke pressed his ear against the door and listened, and heard one word that made his blood, if he'd had any, instantly boil.

"It's definitely Crowley." The man was saying.

_Crowley._

"He's been laying low for a while," the woman said, "running hell quite smoothly but now angels have been turning up dead and it's the work of a demon."

"Where?" Naomi asked, voice stiff.

"Denver." The man said. "There's a trail of angel and demon corpses like a road through the state, it seems the demons have barricaded themselves in a town house, 34rd avenue, Crowley's been spotted there several times this month alone…"

Zeke didn't even bother to stay and listen to the rest of the conversation before he had his angel blade in his hand and was on Earth. It was night in Denver, and the stars sparkled in the clear sky but Zeke didn't care. Crowley was the reason he'd been forced to leave Sam Winchester, Crowley had tried to kill him and this was exactly the reason he needed to make him pay.

34rd Avenue was an old storage lock up, and as Zeke approached the door, he could hear the sounds of a fight coming from the inside. He pressed his ear to the door and then jumped back as the door rattled heavily, as if a body had just been thrown against it.

Zeke took a breath and then kicked the door in, the metal door flung off of his hinges by his superior angel strength, and the scene that greeted him was not the one he had expected.

Crowley was not murdering a horde of Angels, rather, Crowley was on his back, heavily beaten, with a stiletto pressed to his throat while five demon corpses with their faces torn apart were scattered across the floor like rag dolls.

The stiletto-clad woman turned to him as she heard him enter and smiled, all red lipstick and fiery red hair and Zeke stilled.

"Abaddon." He said.

Abaddon released Crowley's throat and the demon coughed and spluttered before getting on his hands and feet and shuffling to safety. But this went largely unnoticed by Abaddon as she crossed the space between herself and Zeke, folding her arms and grinning at him.

"Another angel." She said. "I thought you'd been staying away from Earth since your precious doorway had been reopened. Especially you, Gadreel. I thought they would have locked you back up by now."

Zeke cocked his head to the side, clutching his angel blade tighter in his hand. "What is a knight of Hell doing going after someone like Crowley?"

Abaddon fixed him with a steely gaze, all humour gone. "I don't care about Metatron or Heaven, I care about Hell. I'm going to rule it, I'm going to be the Queen. And no self-proclaimed King, or men of letters, or hunters are going to stand in my way." She suddenly produced a blade that Zeke hadn't seen before and drew it back, ready to shove it into his chest. "And no angels, for that matter."

The blade came forward and penetrated air, and Abaddon growled in anger, gathered herself and then turned back, looking for Crowley.

Whoever that angel was going to run to, would be no match for, not any of the legions of Heaven. Unless…

She stopped in her tracks, blade clacking to the floor. In equal parts smelling fear and opportunity.

"Winchester."

…

Zeke appeared a few blocks away, breathing heavily and stowing his blade before anyone noticed. The knight of Hell that had caused so much trouble before was back, and looking to become Queen of Hell. Who knew what kind of disastrous, calamitous mayhem she could cause with that kind of power, with all those demons at her disposal.

He immediately went to return to Heaven and tell Naomi before he stopped in his tracks. Abaddon knew who he was, and if she got wind that he'd alerted Heaven to her presence, it would take nothing at all, just one word from her pretty little mouth, and it would tear down the life he'd spent the last year building for himself.

He sighed as he realised there was only really one person he could tell about all of this. The only person who could really help.

Dean Winchester.

…

Dean had largely ignored Loki for the next few weeks after their first kiss. He only spoke to him when he had to and he got instantly flustered whenever they accidentally ended up alone together.

Loki wasn't so much offended as he was hurt. Dean wasn't being cruel, he was just scared. And, honestly, acting like a bit of an idiot.

Loki had tried to corner the Winchester on several occasions but had failed, the seasoned hunter being the master of escapism, and Loki, well, he was terrified.

He was miserable, of course, that he'd had feelings for Dean for such a long time and it seemed like the farthest thing from what Dean wanted to happen between them. But he was also terrified that he'd just lost Dean, period. That he wasn't just uninterested in being his lover, but he wasn't interested in being his friend or his mentor anymore.

Maybe Sif had been right, maybe no one wanted him. Maybe he was a serpent.

"So, you going to tell me what's up?" Sam asked, plonking himself down next to Loki on the step in the conference room. Loki jumped, of course he'd known Sam was there, he wouldn't be a very good warrior otherwise, but he hadn't expected him to approach him.

He guessed he'd expected Sam to be mad at him as well as Dean, which was bizarre when he really thought about it. Sam was his friend, and he was tall and muscular and really,  _really_ reminded Loki of Thor. But in more of calming and comforting way than an upsetting way.

Suddenly, having Sam sat next to him, offering him words of comfort at this distressing time made him feel better, like his own brother was sat next to him again.

"Dean didn't tell you?" Loki asked, fingering the strings on his black hoodie.

Sam shook his head. "He's barely spoken to me. Did you guys, I don't know,  _fight_ or something?"

Loki paused for a moment, having an internal debate before he sighed. He was too tired to pretend.

"We kissed."

Sam was silent for a moment.

"I knew it." He said.

Loki turned to him, shocked. "What do you mean you  _knew_ it?"

Sam shrugged. "It was only a matter of time, dude. You and Dean, you've been dancing around each other for years. It was getting kind of annoying, actually."

Loki laughed which soon turned into a sob, but he checked himself before he full on  _cried._ He refused to lose face in front of Sam like that.

"Yeah, I think you knew about this before we did."

"Don't worry about Dean going mental." Sam said rather ironically. "He doesn't really do…like…relationships and all that. He's probably just scared. He'd kick my ass for saying that, but he's probably afraid."

"Or he's not interested." Loki said glumly. "And I've ruined everything."

…

_I've ruined everything._ Dean thought to himself miserably.

He was down in the garage by himself, absentmindedly staring at the Camaro that Loki had been dismantling. It was still in pieces because the God had been too miserable to put it back together since Dean had been ignoring him. Dean felt like shit for doing that to him, doing that to anyone was shitty but hurting  _Loki?_ That was something he'd never thought he would do.

He was confused, because he didn't know what he was running from, exactly. He'd wanted to kiss Loki for a long time, longer than he'd probably even realised. And then it had happened, everything he'd ever wanted, beneath his fingertips and he'd messed it all up.

Why did he do that?

Dean jumped feet and shouted out when he noticed a man materialise out of nothing in the garage and was about to call out for help when he realised who it was. It was Zeke, dressed in the vessel that Dean had first met him in.

"Hello, Dean." Zeke said, but he looked stressed.

"Zeke, what the hell are you doing here?" He asked, suddenly hyper-aware of Sam and Loki on the level above and hoping he hadn't shouted loud enough for them to hear.

"I need to speak to you, urgently."

"Well, now isn't exactly the best time!"

"Dean?" Sam's voice called from above. "You okay?"

_Shit._

"Yeah, I'm fine, Sammy!" Dean called back before lowering his voice. "Look, Sammy can't see you." But Dean could already hear footsteps on the stairs, twin footsteps.

"Dean, I'm here to help you. I promise you need to hear about Abaddon. I won't tell Sam about what happened before. I promise."

"Abaddon?"

"Tell me what?"

The Winchester brothers said simultaneously.

Dean swivelled on his feet and was met with the sight of Sam in the doorway of the stairwell, Loki stood cautiously behind Sam, as if afraid to be in Dean's presence.

"Sam…"

"Tell me, what, Dean?" Sam repeated, lips pressed together in a hard line.

They stood in a stalemate for a moment before Zeke turned impatient behind them.

"This isn't important now." He said, catching their attention. "Abaddon has returned, she's killed countless demons and angels, your friend Crowley potentially along with them. She wants to take control of Hell."

"That can't be true." Sam said. "She…she was in pieces the last time we saw her."

"Well, she's back and she's coming for all of us. I just thought you should know." Zeke said solemnly, before vanishing into thin air and leaving Sam, Dean and Loki alone.

The news of Abaddon's return hung heavy in the air, to everyone except Loki who wasn't exactly sure what was going on. He refrained from asking, however, when Sam again turned his attention to his brother and asked, very quietly:

"What did you do, Dean?"

The look of misery and resignation in Dean's eyes hit Loki like a truck, slamming all the air from his body. He wanted to run to Dean, to fling himself into his arms and make everything okay again but this wasn't about him, this was about two brothers and Loki felt like he was intruding. He went to turn away, to give them some privacy but Dean had already started speaking before he could move.

"You were gonna die, Sam." Dean said, voice cracking.

"What are you talking about?" Sam asked incredulously.

"When you did those trials, your insides, your  _soul_ was hanging together by paperclips, Sammy! There was no coming back from that. I had to do something, or I was gonna lose you!"

"So, what? What did you do? Did you get that angel to heal me behind my back or something? Why not just ask Cas?"

Dean was silent for a long time, long enough that Loki began to wonder if he planned to answer at all.

"Dean!" Sam said, and his voice was so loud it boomed and echoed across the garage.

"I let him possess you. To fix you." Dean said.

The silence in the room was deafening.

"Angels can't possess someone without their permission."

"That's why he had to ask me, instead."

"What?" Sam thundered. "You let an angel live inside me? For how long?!"

"Since you were in hospital, til last year." Dean said quietly.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because I knew how you'd be, Sammy…"

"What? You mean  _exactly like this!"_

"Sammy, please." Dean tried desperately, searching out Loki's gaze for back-up but the God wasn't looking at him. "I did what I had to do, to save you, it's all I ever do."

"You lied to me, is what you did." Sam said resolutely. "I have never been more betrayed in my life, Dean. After everything that happened, after the cage, after Yellow Eyes, and you let something supernatural possess me? How could you?"

"Sammy…"

"No, fuck you, Dean. Fuck you."

Sam turned, and Loki made sure to side-step out of his way to avoid being thrown aside by the youngest Winchester, as he made his way up the stairwell again in a fit of rage. Dean followed quickly, his arm grazing against Loki as he passed him.

Loki stayed in the garage for a long time, listening to the bangs and inaudible shouts coming from above him before things went quiet.

He slowly made his way up the stairs and came to the living room, it was a tip where Sam and Dean had obviously been throwing things.

Dean was sat, cross-legged, on the sofa, his eyes wet yet staring, unseeingly, to the floor.

Loki approached him with caution but Dean didn't even lift his gaze to look at him.

"Sam's gone." Dean said heavily.

"Gone where?" Loki asked, aware that this was the first words they'd exchanged in days. His voice was uncharacteristically small.

"I don't know." Dean said, wiping his nose hurriedly. "I don't think he's coming back."

"Don't say that." Loki tried but Dean shook his head.

"You didn't see him, Loki. You should have seen him."

Dean buried his face in his hands and sobbed, Loki crossed the room and slowly sat down on the sofa next to him, letting his hand rest on Dean's thigh in a comforting way. Dean didn't even react, so used to physical contact with Loki at this point that it was second nature to him.

"It's going to be okay, Dean." He decided on rather lamely.

"Don't say that." Dean muttered.

"You must take my advice." Loki said. "I know how you're feeling."

Dean nodded minutely. "Yeah, sorry. You lost…"

"Don't worry about it." Loki said quickly. "I just…I'm here, you know I am." He fell silent.

"Thanks."

They sat in silence for around half an hour before Loki built up the courage to speak.

"So, whose Abaddon?"

"She's a knight of Hell." Dean said. "One of the first demons. She existed with my grandfather, one of the original men of letters, but she time-travelled here and found us. The last time we saw her, she didn't have freakin' hands. I didn't think she was a threat. Jesus. She wants to rule Hell, and the world. Your run of the mill psycho."

"It's okay. We'll figure it out, we always do."

The pair fell silent again.

"I understand." Loki said finally. "About what you said before, doing bad things for good reasons."

Dean finally lifted his head out from the crook of his arms and looked at Loki with so much hope in his puffy eyes that the trickster thought he was going to cry.

"Really?" Dean asked.

"Yes." Loki said immediately. "And…my opinion hasn't changed. You saved your brother's life, that's it. There's nothing else to it."

Dean sniffled for a moment before he let his arms fall to his sides and turned to sit facing Loki. "Shit, man, I'm fucking everything up."

"Dean…"

"No, I've ruined everything with Sam. With you…"

Loki shook his head immediately. "No, come on, this isn't about us. Not tonight."

"It's the truth, though." Dean admitted. "I shouldn't have been such a dick to you this week, I'm sorry."

Loki was quiet.

"I owe you an explanation."

"You don't have to do that." Loki assured him. "Not now."

"No, I want to." Dean insisted.

Loki was a little breathless at the idea of having Dean speak to him, properly, about what had been going on between them, but at the same time, he was also aware that he was probably focusing on that as a way to stop thinking about everything that had happened with Sam, and everything that was going to happen with Abaddon. So, Loki, being the good friend that he was, sat back and let it happen.

"The reason I rejected you…" Dean began.

_Oh God._

"Was because I was scared."

_Wait, what?_

"I have these like, wicked abandonment issues, you know, to do with my mom and dad, I'm like, Freud's dream patient. What I'm trying to say is, I try and stop things before they start, so people don't have a chance to leave me. But, now you know what I did to Sam, my big secret, and you haven't left me. Yet."

Dean honestly looked so confused by the fact that Loki hadn't stormed out on him like Sam had, but Loki barely registered that because all he could think about was what Dean had just said. That he hadn't rejected Loki because he didn't want him, but rather, that he was scared to lose him.

A spark of hope ignited in Loki's heart and, although he felt bad about Sam leaving, he couldn't feel bad about the fact that he might just get Dean back. He might just get all of him.

"Come here." Loki said softly, holding out his arms.

Dean regarded him wearily for a moment before he shifted on the sofa. He lay his head on Loki's chest and Loki wrapped his arms around Dean and Dean sighed, allowing himself to be held. Loki was warm and comforting and felt like home, and, despite everything that had happened, Dean felt such an overwhelming sense of peace that he couldn't resist it.

"Ever since I met you." Loki spoke softly into his ear, his warm breath tickling Dean's neck, and not in an unpleasant way. "You've always considered yourself some kind of freak. As someone who deserved all the suffering he got. But I've never known anyone with such compassion, with such love for everything he's done. And people might see you as a freak, for what you do, but I never will. Because you aren't. And I promise, I'll never leave you."

"You say that." Dean said, but there was humour in his voice.

"I guess I'll just have to prove it to you. Everyday." Loki said, angling his head to look down at the human laying on his chest.

Dean's eyes searched his for a moment before he had surged up and pressed his mouth to his. Whether it was because he felt lonely, or guilty, or simply because he wanted to kiss him; Loki would never know. But he kissed him back and smiled into Dean's lips as he felt him hug him tighter.

The pair fell asleep like that, wrapped up in each other on the sofa, sharing soft words and soft kisses until they were too tired to continue. As they slept, both as content as they possibly could be considering the circumstances, they were both blissfully unaware of all that was coming their way.

Sam. Abaddon. Asgard. All of it meant nothing. All they had was each other, and when everything struck in a disastrous way, they would realise that that was all they would ever need.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N !!! Yay, they're finally together! But don't be fooled into thinking that means it's clear sailing from here on out **evil laugh**


End file.
